Monday, July 05, 2010

Doing the Oakley Rodeo with the moms

Julie, Joan (Julie's mom), Emily (my mom), and I headed over to the annual Oakley Rodeo on Thursday night. Rodeos are different from what most of us are used to and are extremely entertaining. It is an interesting combination of pageantry and athleticism.

There are the standard events, like riding a horse that has no desire to be ridden. Look closely at how far back this rider has been thrown. Amazingly, he managed to stay on for the full eight seconds.



Each cowboy had his own style for riding broncos and each horse had its own style for tossing cowboys.



As dramatic as the high rear kick looked, it didn't seem to phase the cowboys.



You have to like the enthusiasm of this horse. As soon as they opened the gate, he (she?) literally left the ground.



Several of the events involved picking on little calves. In this one, the cowboy roped the calf, jumped off, and tied its legs. I was most impressed with the horses. The horse apparently knew that when the calf was roped to pull back hard, even after the cowboy had long since jumped off. Look at the how the horses feet are digging in.



The next event seemed a little more fair. The cowboy had to ride up next to the calf, jump off, grab the calf, and wrestle it to the ground.



The cows all had horns which could be used for leverage during the take down.



But every once in a while, the cow was apparently better at wrestling than the cowboy. Too funny!



The only event for the ladies was barrel racing. It is definitely one of the most exciting to watch. Look at this horse cutting the corner.



And the final event, bull versus cowboy. I like this because I think of it as revenge of the cows. This is sometimes referred to as "the longest 8 seconds in sports".



Even after this bull had kicked some cowboy butt, it went looking for more. It took quite a while to convince him to leave the ring without more carnage.



Not to be outdone by the horses, this bull is completely in the air.



But he had nothing going compared to this guy. He threw his cowboy off in about 2 seconds. Hate to draw this bull.



Lots of fun and definitely worth a visit every few years. They had a nice little fireworks display after the rodeo, but I didn't bother trying to take pictures.

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