The Rodeo (or Rodayo?)

The Rodayo, an American tradition, time honored and interesting to watch. This one opened with a nice prayer and no apologies for it.

We were seated in an identical set of stands as this one across the field.


 





Then we stood for the National Anthem. Go figure!


This rider made circles around the field while the Anthem played.

To open the program, these girls rode all around the field in several formations. Lots of practice needed to perform this nicely!

The announcer informed us that the events being held each night were real events, and all riders and contestants were competing in various rodeos around the region for the end of season prize.

Bronc riding? I'm not sure that is what this is called, but its certainly more than horseback riding! Note the strap around the horses back, in front of it's legs. When a rider finished the required 8 second ride, or was dumped off, the 2 guys on horseback (one in pic here) would race along side the bucking horse and release the strap. The horse immediately calmed down. This practice gives me pause but I'm sure the animal rights people check it all out. Not my favorite thing to watch though. Out of 6 riders, only 2 stayed on.

Then came the calf roping. This was almost funny at times to see the calf outwit the cowboy. When the calves were released, they knew right where to go to get out of the ring. In fact, all the animals knew what gate to head to, even though there were riders to direct them.

This was fun to watch. All kids 12 and under were invited to come on the field to participate in an event. Two calves were released, each with a handkerchief on its back, and the first kid to grab the hankie and take it back to the clown in the center got a prize.

This was an interesting event. Two cowboys for one steer. One ropes only the horns of the steer and the other has to rope the 2 hind feet. Several roped the neck and/or one leg, or missed altogether, so there were again only 2 that completed the task out of 5.








This girl is running the last leg of the 3 barrel race. They had room to turn on the 'after-burners' at this point.

This was an all female event, but we were told that if a boy under the age of 12 wanted to compete, they were allowed. Then a dad and a 5 yr old take to the field to run the barrels. There was no competition, of course, but it made everyone smile.

Last up was the bull riding. Boy, is this brutal to watch. Out of about 6 competitors, only one stayed on the 8 seconds. But he couldn't get his hand untwisted from the rope so when he jumped/fell off, he was being drug all around the arena. There were 2 cowboys and a clown trying to get to him, but they couldn't get too close or risk their horse trampling him. After about 20 seconds, which seemed a life time, he got loose. It took a minute for him to stand up and walk off the field but his right arm hung limp at his side. If he didn't break something then he at least tore every tendon, nerve and/or muscle on that shoulder and arm.

Again, if you look at the back of the bull, you can see a rope tied around it's middle. These devices obviously had something to do with making them buck.

Fortunately, he was the 2nd rider so the trauma we witnessed wasn't the last thing we left with, but Bob and I won't soon forget it! With all the events, we were there about 2.5 hours. We enjoyed the evening  and are glad we finally got to see the Cody Rodeo.