James Kjerstad Events Center forms Ground Committee

The stakes for western sports get higher all the time. Horsepower and payouts continue to increase, and so does the importance of safety and fairness.

The James Kjerstad Events Center in Rapid City is host to an array of events across disciplines, including barrel racing, cow cutting, roping, reined cow horse, ranch rodeos, and even motocross.

Good ground is the foundation for any successful equine event. No longer just a bad joke about barrel racers, ground is becoming a focus of producers industry-wide who recognize the serious risks posed by deep or slippery ground, including injury to animal or contestant.

Jim Hunt, President of the Central States Fair, recently formed a Ground Committee, whose purpose is to manage the most ideal conditions for each event. A few factors taken into consideration include ratio of materials, moisture level, and depth.

“I greatly appreciate the new President Jim Hunt for stepping in and helping get the Ground Committee formed,” said Lana Dacar, producer of the 5-State Breeder’s Futurity held at the James Kjerstad Events Center.

She said, “[The Ground Committee offers] their recommendations to each event that comes in to let them know that this is how the drag should be set, how the tractors should be, and the ideal moisture so that each event can find their consistency.”

Dacar, among others, appreciates the efforts made by the Events Center.

“They want big events in there. They want it to be good for multiple disciplines to use it. From my end, I greatly appreciate the efforts that are being made to make it safer and better for barrel racers because we all love to go run there. It’s awesome to be able to go run on a big standard pattern inside. It’s amazing to have the facility as close as it is.

A key member of the Ground Committee is Dave Brandt, who has become an unofficial expert on ground in the region. He is called upon by numerous local events for his input, including the Black Hills Roundup, the Range Days Rodeo, the Fizz Bomb, and the Blitz. He has worked the 5-State Breeders Futurity for over a decade, so is well-acquainted with the host arena.

Dacar said, “I have huge appreciation for Dave. He’s been with me for a lot of years. He’s done a lot of research out on his own, a lot of studying, a lot of trial and error, and I would be lost without him. I appreciate him a lot.”

Though Brandt was not raised around horses, his wife Melissa is an avid barrel racer, which is where his knowledge about ground began. He said, “We had a couple of vet bills that were probably ground-related and just figured it was time to try and make the conditions better to try and avoid those costs for her and for everybody else.”

An insurance adjuster by trade, working with ground has become an important additional vocation for him.

“He’s taken it to heart, and he is doing it because he cares, which is the number one thing with the tractor driver is they have to care. I always feel safe when he’s in the tractor, and I appreciate him looking out for us because it’s a ton of extra time on his part. The Ground Committee is an extra thing he wouldn’t have to do. Everything he does is extra. I think it’s amazing all that he does and all the time that he puts in,” said Dacar.

Several producers have a long, happy relationship with the building. However, in recent years, inconsistencies began occurring with the variation in disciplines. The Ground Committee seeks to provide consistency, tailored to each event.

Improvements have already begun.

The Ground Committee consulted Randy Spraggins, who Brandt refers to as the “ground expert in the country.” Spraggins has worked events such as San Antonio, Houston, and the NFR. He is Brandt’s contact when he has questions.

Spraggins was sent a sample of the ground to analyze and gave Brandt his recommendations on balancing the silt to sand to clay ratio.

Moisture, said Brandt, is the key to everything. “You can make the best ground with the right amount of moisture, and you can also make it treacherous with either too much or not enough moisture.”

The Central States Fair purchased a cutting-edge moisture measuring tool to assist in finding the perfect range.

“I think it goes eight inches, so it’ll measure the average in that eight inches. And right now, we’re just trying to find out what our target is, where we want to be for the best ground. We’re still working through it, but I mean, we’ve got a pretty good idea of where we want to be to make it the best we can. We take eight or 10 measurements, and it averages it all out. We just try and stay within our parameters,” Brandt said.

The way ground is worked is also crucial. The best way to understand properly working ground is to think of it in layers. Brandt said, “For instance, we would work it rather deep and then we’d bring the teeth up maybe two inches, and we’d work the whole thing again. Then we’d bring the teeth up another inch or two inches and work it again. Essentially, you’re probably working it four or five times. You do that every night [before the next day of competition]. You tear it all down to the bottom, get it all worked all the way down as deep as we could and bring it back up in layers.”

The Events Center has also purchased a Black Widow – an arena drag – to aid in this. “I want it safe for the riders and the horses. That’s the first and foremost. And then just being consistent and fair throughout the whole barrel race,” said Brandt.

Brandt provides another example of how the Events Center is customizing the ground for each different event. While barrel racing ground is relatively shallower, cutting ground must be deep. Brandt said, “They’ve started to pack the ground, they bring in the sand that they need for the cutting, and then they’ll haul that sand back out so it doesn’t get mixed in with what we’re trying to accomplish for the barrel racing.”

The Ground Committee has already heard positive feedback, according to Dacar, who recently attended the South Dakota Junior High State Finals. “The overall feedback from the junior high parents was, ‘Wow, this is a big difference from before.’ From even the first regional rodeo to state… I think that effort that they made between those two events was huge, because that’s not a lot of time to try to get something done.”

“Paul [Nebel] at the Events Center – he’s done a great job of trying to accommodate everybody,” said Brandt. Nebel is the Building and Grounds Supervisor for the Central States Fair and deserves “a lot of credit for the countless hours that he is there,” said Brandt. “He works that ground more than anybody and he puts in a lot of time to get it to where it is.”

Megan McPherson, producer of numerous barrel races in the Events Center, is also on the board, along with Dan Earley of LEi Construction.

The common goal for all is to take a great competition setting and make it even better.

“I speak for everybody that we greatly, greatly appreciate the Events Center being there and the ability to use it. They’re great to work with,” said Dacar.