Lost Aussie on the loose: Rodeo

June 16, 2013

Rodeo - Country Style

As we are want to do, DH and I headed out today for some weekend adventure, cameras in hand.
Initially we had planned to go Bluegrass (music) hunting but since I really wanted to get some pics of a Rodeo and the two events were in rather different directions, we settled for a bit of a visit to Black Mountain for lunch before making our way to the Rodeo at Pinto Acres.

We arrived rather early at the Rodeo site and the large looming field and empty bleachers set me wondering as to whether we had made a good choice or not. However within 45 minutes the place was packed! Trucks and trailers arriving in droves. Horses, cattle, cowboys and cowgirls forming a merry throng.

Around 6:45 the opening ceremonies got underway and from there on in for a goodly number of hours we were treated to horsey and cow capers....

I've only been to two other Rodeos before, long long time ago in Houston and much bigger events than this. The good thing about this event was that there were no particular rules or restrictions about where you could wander, no-one minded if you were poking your uber large zoom lens through the fence and by all accounts most folk found it interesting that some-one would bother to come by and take pictures of what they were doing....

We got to watch "Chute Dogging", where you wrestle steers from standing down to the ground, Calf Roping, where Um, yes, they rope the cattle, setting the steer out from a cute, one rider knobbles the head and another rider ropes the feet.... and Barrel Racing, where the rider must circle the barrels in a clover leaf pattern at a hell bent pace, with a mad dash to the finish...
The fast tight turns around the barrels are phenomenal and in the bottom shot I was THAT close to the turn that I garnered a mouthful of dirt to boot!!!