Rodeo- The Daddy of Them All!

July 21st

Neither Dale nor I had ever been to a rodeo.  On our 2009 trip, it seemed as if we kept missing them- it was last week, or it was coming next week.  Because of our change in itinerary, it opened up an opportunity to go to Cheyenne, Wyoming, for Frontier Days.  This is billed as the biggest rodeo in the world, with Calgary in Canada as number two.  The added bonus for Dale is that we decided to stay outside Cheyenne in Laramie.  About 57 years ago, Dale went to Laramie for an Order of the Arrow (Boy Scouts) conclave which was held at the University of Wyoming.  We spent an evening driving around the UW campus to see if he could figure out where he had stayed.  Obviously, after 57 years, not only has the memory weakened but the campus has changed immensely.  He clearly remembers looking out over the prairie from the dorm he was staying in and seeing a ranch in the distance that he was told was 30 miles away.  Now, there are so many buildings, the view of the prairie is blocked.  It was fun, anyway.

We went to the rodeo early on Saturday, as we were concerned we may not get tickets.  They seemed to have plenty left (we chose seats under cover, as the temperature was to be in the 90's), and since nothing really started until 12:45, we wandered around looking at the little temporary shops and walked through the Indian Village set up on the grounds.  Great people watching, with lots of cowboy hats and boots, as well as other unusual outfits... We had great barbecue for lunch, sitting on the grass in the shade, chatting with folks who knew some of the riders and with others who had come some distance just to see the rodeo.  We were told this was the best rodeo to see as our first.

Our seats were in the "nosebleed" section, but we had no problem seeing the action.  There were demonstrations of fancy riding, speeches from politicians, and an opening parade.  There were several events- bareback bronco riding, saddle bronco riding, bull riding (scary), calf roping and  steer wrestling,          where a cowboy chases a steer on horseback, than jumps off the horse onto the back of the steer and wrestles it to the ground.  The steers are huge, and so are most of the cowboys who participate in this event.  The leader at the end of Saturday in the saddle bronco riding was a young man named Will Smith from South Carolina.  Who knew we had cowboys in South Carolina?

The arena

Opening Ceremonies

Bull Riding

What??

Bare-Back Bronco Riding

Calf Roping

Saddle Bronco Riding

We had a great time watching the events, and I had fun trying to catch some good photos of the action.  As I mentioned, the bull riding was a little scary, as the bull always seemed to be out for revenge once he tossed his rider.  They had lots of other riders around to distract the bull, along with the clown whose job it is to attract the bull's attention.   No one got injured, but the bull certainly wanted to do a little stomping on the guy once he was down!  The bronco riding was fun.  The horses have as much of a reputation as broncos as the cowboys do as riders.  There were several champion broncos in the show. Once they dumped their riders, their main interest seemed to be running around the arena while the riders tried to catch them.  The one we did not enjoy as much was the calf roping, as those poor little guys really went down hard once they were roped.  We enjoyed our day- probably don't need to do it again!