Action! Skill! Showmanship! Points! RIDE-EM-COWBOY VAUDEVILLE!! Rodeo on Friday night. Big crowd. Stetsons, Levis and Justins – head to toe cowpoke-dressed. The Blues Festival for ranchers and cow-punchers.
Pre-show was “mutton-bustin’” in which a 5 year old child was latched onto the back of an unshorn-sheep and the sheep was set loose. Kid wearing a helmet; kid either dumped in the loam or plucked off by an adult as the sheep charged by. Longest time a kid clung to a sheep – about 5 seconds. This is how you train human rag dolls to grow up and latch themselves voluntarily on a 2,000lb brahma bull. Or as the announcer called it, “Red-necked child abuse.” I think he was trying to be funny.
Patriotic! American Flag! Honor Guards! STARS-AND-STRIPES Salute!! Rodeos are intensely patriotic. The ticket stub had ARMY STRONG on one side, and New Mexico National Guard on the other. The Guard presented the colors.
Pro rodeo started at 8 pm with the bareback bull riding. Watch my video and see who reigns in the ring – the bull chased the clown over the rail! The guy who won the bull riding event was out of uniform – he wore a motocycle crash helmet fitted with an umpire or hockey-style face guard instead of his cowboy hat. This event was followed by bareback on bucking broncos, by saddled bucking broncos, by bull-dogging where the cowboy jumps off a horse at about 30 mph onto a running, horned bull, wrestles it to the ground onto its side. This was followed by calf roping as singles and calf roping in teams. And that was followed by the only event of the evening for the “fairer sex” which was barrel racing (not that rodeo is overtly macho :->). I had been waiting for this event, but had finally gotten up to go to the johhny-spot and the barrel racing was half over by the time I got back. I’m not really making fun: we both had fun at the rodeo. It was my first time and I got a kick out of the crowds, not to mention admiring the willingness of the riders to commit their bodies to the abuse of trying to staying on an animal who is moving in 4 different directions simultaneously. Nick remembered rodeo from Tucson as a kid and was anxious to re-experience it. I’d go back again next year. I’m not sure Nick will be so interested. We left about 9:30, and there were events yet to follow. If each individual stayed on his animal an average of 10 seconds, there were 6 to 7 men in each event, and I think there were six events, that meant that in 90 minutes that we stayed, there was 7 minutes of actual riding. Add to that the 6 women competing in barrel-racing, at about 18 seconds each for another 1.8 minutes and the approximately 3 minutes of a trick rider. We saw 11.8 minutes of rodeo riding and 78 minutes of waiting while they settled an animal down in the gate or while they chased an animal out of the ring. And I used to complain about commercials taking up all the air time on TV. My most humorous impression from the rodeo? The calves and bulls in the roping contests wore helmets!
Yesterday, we went to Tucson to meet our friends who used to live there until the ocean called them to the Bay area. They were back for a gathering of friends at their former church, and we drove down to meet them for dinner and, this morning, breakfast. We went to a real chinese restaurant. REAL chinese restaurant. It is true that there is a scarcity of good restaurants here in Silver City. For all the attractions natural, educational and artistic and the the stimulations visual, auditory, and olfactory, you don’t visit Silver City for the food.
Pre-show was “mutton-bustin’” in which a 5 year old child was latched onto the back of an unshorn-sheep and the sheep was set loose. Kid wearing a helmet; kid either dumped in the loam or plucked off by an adult as the sheep charged by. Longest time a kid clung to a sheep – about 5 seconds. This is how you train human rag dolls to grow up and latch themselves voluntarily on a 2,000lb brahma bull. Or as the announcer called it, “Red-necked child abuse.” I think he was trying to be funny.
Patriotic! American Flag! Honor Guards! STARS-AND-STRIPES Salute!! Rodeos are intensely patriotic. The ticket stub had ARMY STRONG on one side, and New Mexico National Guard on the other. The Guard presented the colors.
Pro rodeo started at 8 pm with the bareback bull riding. Watch my video and see who reigns in the ring – the bull chased the clown over the rail! The guy who won the bull riding event was out of uniform – he wore a motocycle crash helmet fitted with an umpire or hockey-style face guard instead of his cowboy hat. This event was followed by bareback on bucking broncos, by saddled bucking broncos, by bull-dogging where the cowboy jumps off a horse at about 30 mph onto a running, horned bull, wrestles it to the ground onto its side. This was followed by calf roping as singles and calf roping in teams. And that was followed by the only event of the evening for the “fairer sex” which was barrel racing (not that rodeo is overtly macho :->). I had been waiting for this event, but had finally gotten up to go to the johhny-spot and the barrel racing was half over by the time I got back. I’m not really making fun: we both had fun at the rodeo. It was my first time and I got a kick out of the crowds, not to mention admiring the willingness of the riders to commit their bodies to the abuse of trying to staying on an animal who is moving in 4 different directions simultaneously. Nick remembered rodeo from Tucson as a kid and was anxious to re-experience it. I’d go back again next year. I’m not sure Nick will be so interested. We left about 9:30, and there were events yet to follow. If each individual stayed on his animal an average of 10 seconds, there were 6 to 7 men in each event, and I think there were six events, that meant that in 90 minutes that we stayed, there was 7 minutes of actual riding. Add to that the 6 women competing in barrel-racing, at about 18 seconds each for another 1.8 minutes and the approximately 3 minutes of a trick rider. We saw 11.8 minutes of rodeo riding and 78 minutes of waiting while they settled an animal down in the gate or while they chased an animal out of the ring. And I used to complain about commercials taking up all the air time on TV. My most humorous impression from the rodeo? The calves and bulls in the roping contests wore helmets!
Yesterday, we went to Tucson to meet our friends who used to live there until the ocean called them to the Bay area. They were back for a gathering of friends at their former church, and we drove down to meet them for dinner and, this morning, breakfast. We went to a real chinese restaurant. REAL chinese restaurant. It is true that there is a scarcity of good restaurants here in Silver City. For all the attractions natural, educational and artistic and the the stimulations visual, auditory, and olfactory, you don’t visit Silver City for the food.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment