LOVINGTON, N.M. – It started with a query from a friend about 15 years ago.

That was just the little engine that could for Shona Able and her husband, John. They jumped aboard, and the train has been rolling down the tracks for them ever since.

“My friend, Lisa McNeill, was in charge of the special rodeo, and she caught me and said, ‘Hey, why don’t you come and help with the special rodeo?’ ” Able said. “That was it; I’ve been doing it ever since.”

The event – which takes place at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 4, at Jake McClure Arena on the Lea County Fairgrounds in Lovington – is a longstanding tradition with the annual fair and rodeo to highlight children with special needs. The night that kicks off rodeo week is a perfect opportunity for those youngsters to have an evening all to themselves and learn a little more about the sport.

“I just have a heart for special needs kids,” Able said. “I just wanted to do something that was just for them. I want to see the look on their faces, the smile they have when they’re happy and they’re so excited. It makes me feel good to know I’ve just helped them do something that they probably would never get to do any other place.”

The special rodeo features an average of 20 youngsters between the ages of 3-21. That coincides with special education in the school districts, where students can begin pre-kindergarten at age 3 and can remain enrolled until 21.

“On the first Saturday, which is just two days before our special rodeo, they open the carnival for my special needs kids,” Able said. “They get to ride all the rides at the carnival for two hours completely for free. It’s early in the morning, so it’s still kind of cool, and I’ll have a lot of the kids who want to be part of that.”

That’s “special.” Every youngster wants to be involved, and that’s even more the case for the kids who face developmental challenges. Here’s the caveat: The folks who help the youngsters are beneficiaries of their own time and energy.

“I tell everybody that they can come out and volunteer,” she said. “Please volunteer, but I’m going to tell you something: You’re going to get more out of this than they do. You truly volunteer because you just can’t imagine how wonderful it is to see them smile and get to experience things that they don’t ever get to experience again throughout the year.

“We have all kinds of volunteers, from cowboys to ranchers and people in our community that volunteer. I have a lot of people from my church, my co-workers … I’ve got a little bit of everything. We get the rodeo clown usually and at least one of the bullfighters. The rodeo announcer, Andy (Stewart), always comes and does my announcing.”

That’s a reflection of the community, whether it’s folks in Lea County or members of the family that live the gypsy lifestyle that is rodeo. Everyone involved wants to give, wants to be part of something spectacular.

“We can’t do this without all the amazing volunteers,” Able said. “We can always use volunteers, because I don’t want to have to turn a child away because there is nobody to help them. I have never turned a child away, and I don’t have any intention of doing that. I’ll do whatever it takes to have somebody in the arena with every one of them. I’ve pulled people from registration, from taking pictures; I was pulling everybody, because we’re not turning kids away.”

No, that’s not going to happen with Shona and John Able in the mix. They’ve seen the impact the special rodeo has on the children, the families and the volunteers, and they’ll continue to strive for greatness on a night that celebrates diversity and love.

It’s the smiles, though, that bring them the greatest joy.

“When you see that kid on a horse and he is smiling big and he’s running and he’s going down there on that horse and he’s picking up that flag and he’s coming back and you tell him to wave … that smile on their face is just it,” Shona Able said. “I don’t need anything else.”