As a
four year old pre-schooler, Dave's parents took him to see Tommy
Steiner's Rodeo
at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Arena in Harrisburg, PA. When the rodeo
bug bit the lad, it bit hard. All through school, Dave was possessed
with rodeo. While other boys were thinking about Boy Scouts, baseball
or girls, Dave was thinking about Brahma bulls and bucking horses. At
sixteen, Dave began a ten-year career as a rodeo contestant,
competing in bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, steer
wrestling, as well as his favorite event, Bullriding.
In
1971, Dave started a business of leasing bulls to rodeos on the
eastern seaboard. This business expanded until Dave finally produced
his first sanctioned rodeo in 1975, in Hanover, PA.
This year,
Dave Martin's Championship Rodeos will produce Bullride Manias in six different states (2008 Schedule).
Some of the
highlights of Dave's 30 years of producing rodeos include:
- Best Bucking
Bull at the International Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City, OK, two times!
- Producing a
High School Rodeo for the Commonwealth of PA at the annual Farm Show
that was voted #1 in the nation.
- Providing bulls for nationally-televised rodeo telecasts.
Dave and his son Casey reside in
Gettysburg, PA where the company is based on a six
hundred acre ranch along US Rt. 15. Casey competes in rodeo as a
Steer Wrestler and attends the Savannah, GA College of Arts &
Design, as well as being the show's official photographer. Dave's
late son Jesse was ranked among the top twenty bull riders in the nation
during his senior year of high school.
When not on the rodeo road, Dave
works as a car auctioneer in several northeastern states. Dave Martin's
rodeo career spans three decades. Passionately devoted to producing
the best shows in the Northeast, he supervises, consults,
choreographs, and oversees new, innovative, and many times unexpected
ideas for the shows that entertain over 250,000 fans annually. Each
animal is an important member of the family. The
"Fly-By-Night Crew" lives, travels, and works together
caring for the animals, which is not only a twenty-four-hour-a-day
commitment, but a way of life.
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