The Rodeo

For the second year in a row Doug and I have gone to a rodeo. It is becoming a fun tradition. Aside from the country music and city people in cowboy hats, it's a great evening out. Huge thanks go to Doug's sister Mary for watching Penny while we were gone for the evening

We were there!

The pre-rodeo entertainment was mutton busting. Basically a bunch of kids ride a bunch of sheep. I definitely wasn't tough enough to do that when I was a kid so I really admire these kids, especially when the sheep falls on them or steps on them.

Mutton busting = holding on for dear life until you fall off

Falling off and being grateful the sheep ran the other way

To officially start the rodeo they have girls ride around with flags of the sponsors. They do cool formations like figure eights and serpentine S shapes.

The sponsor flags

They also show off the future broncos from the breeding program. These are moms with their foals who will eventually join the rodeo circuit. I just learned that a baby horse is a foal, a horse between one and two years is a yearling, a male horse under four years is a colt, and a female under four years is a filly. A gelding is a castrated male of any age. Now you know.

Mares and their foals

The first real event was the saddle bronc riding. The riders have to stay on for 8 seconds to qualify for a score. The rider can get up to 50 points and the horse can get up to 50 points. I believe the highest score was in the 80s.

Look at the bronco buck

This bronc flew out of the chute

The next event was steer wrestling. The cowboy on the left is called the hazer. He controls where the steer is going. The guy jumping off the horse is the wrestler and he jumps off the horse and pulls the steer to the ground.

Jumping off to wrestle that steer

The steer gets a head start. If the cowboy goes too soon it's called breaking the barrier and he gets 10 seconds added to his total time.

Gotta be quick but not break the barrier

Unfortunately I have one of the worst cameras in the world so when it got too dark all of my pictures were blurry.

It's us watching some cowboys and eating strawberries and cream

The other events at the rodeo included bareback riding, tie down roping, team roping, wild cow milking, barrel racing, and bull riding. My favorite was the barrel racing, partially because it's a girl  event and also because it's fun to watch them go fast then slow down to go around the barrels. In the wild cow milking event two cows ran into each other and fell down in what I now call "The Great Cow Crash of the Wednesday Night Rodeo." Also, one of the barrel racers had her horse fall down as it rounded a barrel.

The bulls that got ridden a few minutes before

All in all it was a really fun evening. Maybe next year I'll have a better camera and wow you with some amazing (and not blurry) action shots.

Have you ever been to a rodeo? What's your favorite event?