The first hour involved events for the kids and teens - smaller humans wrangling smaller quadrupeds.
Events like "Mutton Bustin" - wrangling sheep. Or a billy goat is staked to a 20 foot rope. A six year old rides up, dismounts, flips the billy goat upside down, wraps a rope around at least 3 legs, and stands up in victory. The billy goat is left to bleat balefully, only slightly traumatized.
Or barrel racing, where the rider guides the horse around three widely-spaced barrels, and then rides like hell towards the finish line. Beatiful to watch for a skilled rider on a fast horse, finishing in about 20 seconds. One six year old girl rode a shetland pony which frankly refused to go faster than a stroll, and took 3 minutes and 40 seconds.
But then a lunch break, and into the adult events, with progressively larger and more dangerous animals: steer wrangling, staying on a buncking bronco for 8 seconds, and finally bull-riding.
In bronco busting, the rider has to stay on a [randomly-drawn, unbroken horse] for 8 seconds, holding on with at most one hand, and then get off safely. The other riders pen in the bronco, and give the rider somewhere to jump to, to get off.
Here the bronco loses the rider, and kicks him in the ass for his troubles:
A bronco merely wants to get you off his back; the bull wants to get you off and then make someone pay for the indignity. Note Kathy's empathic commentary on the audio track...
No comments:
Post a Comment