Text Box: Home So, You wanna be a cowboy?

It was truly amazing to watch the rodeo.  We stayed until the barrel racing bitter end.  Without question the bull and bronco riding were the most amazing things to watch.  You have to remember these are the Jr. Rodeo members, which are kids who are ranging in age from 8-18.  They had lots of cowgirls who were all very beautiful even if they were hog-tying a goat!  While I am not sure how I feel about the treatment of the calves and goats, I do accept this is a culture that looks at these animals differently than I do.  They are livestock, and treated like such.  They certainly weren’t mistreated, just rough handled.  But, again, this is a cultural difference from somebody sitting on two acres in Northern Virginia...I still found it fascinating, and without question the BEST thing we did while in Oklahoma!

Event 1: Cattle Rustling

 

The object:  The calf goes running out into the ring, you follow on horseback and lasso the calf around the neck, tie him to your saddle, jump off and bind his legs together with another rope you carry around your neck.  You are timed.  Best time wins.  If you miss your cow, or he comes untied, you receive no points.

 Event 2: Bronco and Bull Riding

Object:  to stay on the bull or bronco the longest.  After a certain time you time out and jump onto the other cowboys horses.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any bull riding photos, because it was too dark and too late.  Both events were equally exciting though.  At one point a horse bucked a rider over the fence (which was VERY high) into the pen beside!  Also, in the bull riding, a young rider got his hand caught in the rope around the bulls neck and was getting whipped around like a piece of spaghetti until the ring clowns could break him free!  It was very tense and exciting!  Luckily, no one was hurt. 

Event 3: Cattle Ropin’

Object:  The calf runs out of the shoot and the cowgirl lasso’s it, and the clock stops when the calf breaks the line from the saddle.  Now, if the calf doesn’t break the line (as in picture 3) or the calf stops just out of the shoot (too funny to watch that happen) or the girl misses with the lasso, no points are given. 

Hog Tie a Goat: 

Object: Ride down on your horse to a tethered goat, wrestle him to the ground and hog tie him!  Fastest time wins.  Now, while it may seem less dangerous than many events, indeed this had the worst accident we saw in the rodeo.  A girl fell off her horse face down in the mud.  For what seemed like a really long time, she never moved or got up.  Finally, she did get off the field on her own.
Oval: Other events we saw at the rodeo included two riders lassoing one calf. One cowboy lassoed the neck and the second lassoed the rear leg. How they could do that on a calf that was bucking and running was just amazing to watch. They also had events where they rode along side of a calf and jumped off the horse onto the calf and wrestled him to the ground with their bare hands. These calves were older, and some had been around a few times, because when the gate opened—they had figured out NOT to run, so the cowboy would ride out full speed, and the calf would just be sauntering around in the pen! Too funny!! Oval: Barrel racing and Agility trials rounded out the events at our rodeo experience. There was always something to see, and lots of cowboys around to look at and talk to. Cade made lots of friends with his new ‘tattoo’— Oval: When the goat was tethered alone in the mud, it looked a little “Jurassic Park” to me!