ranch rodeo

I may live in Texas, but I'm not a fan of rodeos.

But a few days ago, a friend called and asked me to accompany her to a ranch rodeo in celebration of the National Day of the American Cowboy. I had never been to a ranch rodeo and it was supposed to be different.

It was. Interesting. Slow. Amusing. Dusty.

The cowboys and cowgirls (some teams were mixed and one was all women) formed teams of about five members and participated in the events of their choice: steer-tying, branding, stampede, 2 rescue races, wild horse ride. The all-female team won the trophy.

In the steer tying event, the team had to head (lasso the horns or neck) and heel (lasso the back legs or leg) an about 800-pound steer, while other team members had to bring the take the uncooperative steer to the ground and immobilize him by tying three legs together.

The header ropes the horns and turns the cow so the heeler can lasso the hind legs.

This was the point the steer turned and bumped hard into the heeler's horse. The horse just absorbed the shock and kept after the steer. I'm not sure the first heeler was successful, but notice that a second team member is ready just in case.

My favorite thing to watch were the horses: how athletic they were, how well trained, how they acted when their rider just left them. One riderless horse actually helped herd a steer into the holding pens, while another showed his displeasure of no saddle pad by bucking with his rider across the arena. Oh, the cowboys were nice eye candy too.

A captured steer signaled the others to finish the job.


The steer got its revenge for the treatment. This one chased one of the unhorsed cowboys up the arena fence before the officials could get it back into the pens. Someone sitting nearby commented, "Ya gotta watch out for those Brahmas, they don't forget."

One event was call a rescue, but I don't think I would want to be rescued this way. But it was exciting. The participants could choose a shovel or a cowhide to be pulled behind a horse to the other side of the arena where the pulled person was dumped off and another jumped on and was dragged racing across the arena. Several lost their hold on the shovel and were dragged across the finish. (As long as you were dragged across the line, you were still in the game.) OUCH.

The thing I will remember most about the event was that I kept missing the significant photo moments. It's been so long since I've had a good camera, I keep forgetting to put it up to my face. Maybe next time . . .