Hold on with your dominant hand, squeeze your thighs, relax your upper body and use your free hand for balance. And that, my friends, is how to ride a mechanical bull.
You can store this bit of trivia away in the back of your mind in the event that you’re ever a contestant on Jeopardy, but it may also serve you well in the near future if you go to Western Night at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Saugerties on Saturday, May 25. The event will be replete with professional deejays playing music to line-dance by, Western-style food, drink specials at the cash bar and a rollicking mechanical bull to ride. Festivities go on from 8 p.m. “until the cows come home.”
Admission is limited to the first 250 people (age 21 and over) at the door with $10 to plunk down. Rides on the mechanical bull cost $5 per ride, or $20 for unlimited rides all night. The Columbiettes, the auxiliary branch of the Knights of Columbus, will provide Western-themed food, available for purchase at nominal prices, and a prize will be given out to the Best-Dressed Couple in Western-style garb.
It’s planned as a good time for a good cause: The proceeds raised at Western Night will help with some much-needed repairs and upgrades to the aging Knights of Columbus Hall, says Will Myers, deputy grand knight of the organization. “Most of our fundraisers are for designated recipients – our veterans, the homeless or any number of domestic programs – but this one is for us.” Repairs to the roof were recently done, along with replacing the carpeting in the ballroom, he says; but more work and upgrades are needed in order to continue to carry out the organization’s mission of helping other charitable organizations and causes.
This is the first Western Night that the group has held. Myers says that he’s hoping it’ll be something that people will want to see a repeat of in the future, and that all the elements for that to happen are there. “We have a huge Council that accommodates a lot of people, and a lot of dancing, and we’re just expecting it to be a really good time.” Drinks at the Knights of Columbus bar are “notoriously underpriced,” he adds, “and we think it’ll be fun just to watch people try to stay on the mechanical bull, even if they don’t ride it themselves.”
And if you don’t last long on the mechanical bull, don’t feel bad: Keep in mind that pro riders on a real bull are required to stay on for just eight seconds.
Western Night, Saturday, May 25, 8 p.m., $10, Knights of Columbus Hall, 19 Barclay Street, Saugerties; (845) 246-2490, www.saugertieskofc.org.
Join the family! 
