Rodeo

The big thing going on down here this weekend is the National High School Rodeo Finals. Rocky and Lindsey (Bobby's brother and his wife) invited us to go last night to see the rodeo with their family and it was a lot of fun. Farmington has had some trouble with not having enough facilities for everyone who came down to participate, but we still managed to squeeze into the stands and find a seat. We got to see the bull riding (those animals are HUGE), calf roping, buckin' broncos (those guys have thrill issues), steer wrestling, team roping, girl's tying goats (that was pretty funny to watch), and barrel racing (the event that Bobby and I both enjoyed the most actually).

The funniest part was unexpected. After a particularly fiesty buckin' bronco was done, the horseriders (umpires, referees, what does one call a rodeo official in the arena?) tried to get the horse to go out of the arena. Mostly they go quite quickly and without too much fuss, a few give a good chase at first and then relent, but this horse tried an entirely new tactic. He simply wouldn't leave. After he was cornered and lassoed, he dug in with all four legs and refused to budge. All three men were pulling and pushing, and he just would not move. They did everything to get him to budge but he wouldn't have any of it. It took several minutes to get him near the gate, and then he did it again - he refused to move another inch. The guys were shouting, their horses were pulling, but the horse wouldn't go. (The commentator said he knew how the officials felt - it looked like when he tries to get his wife to leave Wal-Mart.) It took a long time to get him inside the gate and then he tried to follow the riders back out onto the arena and they had chase him further down the chute. An ingeniouis horse.

Being around so many cowgirls and cowboys you come away with a very odd desire to put on a hat, grab a rope, and ride out. Except, maybe with fewer rhinestones on your shirt than the Rodeo Royalty were sporting. (How many things can you bedazzle? Your hat, your shirt, your horse's gear, your belt, your buckle, your bracelets...)