YEHAWWWW!!!! RODEO!!

 It could not have been a more perfect day for a Rodeo!  We were off at 10:30 to pick up the Chance granddaughter Laila.  If it involves horses, she and I are IN!  Here's the baby Cas, completely full of it with needle sharp teeth.  We all had to give him a little love before taking off.

We arrived to gorgeous sunny weather as we checked out the bucking stock.  Last year the rodeo got rained out, but the year before, the bulls were in this corral, so I had the opportunity to get some pictures up close and personal.  Let me just say things are NOT as close as they look through a camera lens!  When that bull took a step forward, I jumped back.  Turns out he was halfway across the corral.

Basically, we made a beeline for the carnival food area.  I should have taken pictures of that burger and strawberry lemonade because it cost me $18.00.  It was good, but not THAT good!!  Or maybe she didn't count the change right.  At any rate, the lemonade was delicious!!

I thought it rather funny that the Beer Garden also contained the outhouse section!!

We had great seats for the entire 5 hour performance.  Oh my aching butt, but worth the cost of aspirin when I got home.  By the way, this is the largest outdoor winter rodeo in the world, or at least I think that's what they said.  I was a tad bit distracted by the good looking cowboys and even better looking horses.

The first hour was Junior Rodeo.  It doesn't matter if there are only one or two contestants, they hold the rodeo for the kids anyway.  First up ... four and five year olds riding sheep.  They hang on for dear life, but sheep with this much wool are rolly polly, making it difficult to hold on.  Everyone was fine here since the dirt is several inches thick and "fluffy".

They are scored just as if they were on a brahma bull.  There were even a few girls this year.

Actually, whoever stayed on the longest won, since most didn't last more than ten feet out the gate.  Everyone got great applause from the audience!!

In no particular order, here's the calf roping, although now they seem to have changed the name to calf tie.  For the kids, all they have to do is catch the calf, jump off and touch it.  I think only this one caught his calf, although by the hind heel since the calf ran through the loop.  This reminds me of my calf roping on branding days at the ranch.  It would have taken us two weeks had they depended on my throwing skills.

For team roping, most had their dads do the heading while they did the heeling.   See the rope perfectly placed under the calf's back feet?  The cowboy in front then pulls the calf forward, it steps into the rope and you pull with all your might.  Yeah, I wasn't very good at that either, but it sure is fun to watch.

The steer riding only had two contestants I think, one of which was a girl!  YOU GO GIRL!!  They had to ride for 6 seconds, neither of which made it.

Finally for the little girls, goat tying.  Ride up fast, haul your horse to a stop, jump off and tie up three of the goats legs.  The first little girl jumped off before slowing her horse down and took a tumble, but got up and tied the goat anyway.  This one was little smarter, she got her horse stopped before she bailed.  

The crowd went wild!!  And that was it ... the end of the Junior Rodeo.  

I've now got my work cut out for me, with 761 images to process.  There's one thing about being an action photographer, you have to take a lot of images to get good ones.  I'll plow through them today and post over the next few days.  No use having picture overload all at once.  And yes, it makes me want to get back into the horse business.