That's the secret to a successful rodeo according to the folks at Gresford.

They should know after taking out the Australian Bushmen's Campdraft and Rodeo Association (ABCRA) Rodeo Committee of the Year.

Gresford Rodeo president Kevin Kealy, secretary Brittany Crouch and Luke Moore accepted the award at the ALEC Arena in Tamworth during the ABCRA finals in late January.

"We all put in 100 per centy to organise what we think is the best rodeo, but for the competitors to vote for us as the best ABCRA affiliated rodeo was completely amazing, " she said.

"We are more than grateful to them."

There's a lot of work behind the scenes to be the best.

"We work hard to listen to competitors and change things they aren't happy with," said Crouch.

"We are very lucky - our rodeo committee is made up of some really amazing competitors who come back and tell us what the competitors want at the rodeo.

"We also have a team of amazing people in the arena who work all day and night to make sure that everything runs smoothly and a safely as possible.

"We have volunteers that help the weekend before the event to get the grounds right under the amazing guidance of the rodeo director Grant Eldridge.

"We have an amazing committee full of people who love rodeo."

A change in date did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of the crowd for last year's rodeo which attracted a crowd of between 3000 and 4000 people and around 500 competitors.

"We decided because of the way August fell in 2019 that it would be the better weekend for it," said Crouch of the date change.

"Getting it away from a few local events did help with crowd numbers and hopefully in 2020 we can have an even bigger event this year."

Crouch said it is always sad to hear when other events succumb to the ravages of the drought with some events being cancelled.

"That's honestly heartbreaking to hear, it's not something that any committee wants to do," she said.

Rodeo in my opinion is run for one sole purpose and that's to entertain country communities.

"Either big or small a rodeo will always bring country communities together, it's the event of the year in some towns.

"Now more than ever with the drought I think rodeos are so much more than points and money, it's a way of getting people together and catching up with the neighbours.

"It gets people's minds off the struggle of day to day life."

The contractors were just one of the elements on a long list which enabled the rodeo's success.

"We couldn't run our event without our amazing stock contractors," said Crouch.

"We are a very lucky rodeo to have some very amazing supporters who are more than happy to help our event be what it is. We couldn't do it without any of them.

"We are only one committee in a line of committees that have shaped our rodeo to be what it is."