What's More Fun Than A Rodeo?

I have no idea, but if it's more fun than a rodeo, I want to know about it.  I went to my first rodeo the other day and had a lot of fun.

Is it pronounced ro-de-oh or ro-DAY-oh?  Well, whatever.

Pam is a seasoned horse person and knew all of what was going on.  I just soaked it all in and had fun with my camera.  Not as much fun as kids on the Bunge-a-Fun though.

This kid's socks are mismatched...

but I think I found his brother!

This rodeo was child-centric, which is fine by me because I'm a child at heart.

These are roping steers.  The headgear is to protect their noggins from the rope.

I think $75 is a pretty good deal, but we don't have room on the boat for another animal.

Porkchop the rodeo clown!

Are we there yet?

Checking the roster.

I wonder how many cowboys can tie their own neckwear?

Pam really liked this sugar coated horse, on the right.

Miss Rodeo USA!

Signs of being bucked off.

I wonder if he knows about the Marlboro Man?

When ya gotta go...

The sun was setting, making getting action shots difficult, even at ISO 1600 and shooting wide open.

The blur in the camera sort of mimics the blur of the action.

Anyone can ride one horse.

Hey, she was looking right at me!

Talk about being in the hot seat!

Porkchop decides he's going to shoot himself to the moon!

I personally think he should wait until a full moon.

BLAM!  Where did he go?  Do you see him?  Nope.  Only his clothes that got blowed off.  As the clown picked up and examined the clothes, the announcer said "Look in the pockets!  He's small!"

Back to rodeo fun.

The idea here was for two teams of college kids to dress a steer in shorts, socks, tee shirt, and hat.  The winner!  No.  No idea what the point was.

I was glad to see that many of the bull riders wore helmets.

Maybe next they should wear seat belts.

Face plant.

These rodeo "clowns" are amazing.  Their job is to distract the bull from the rider, who is probably disoriented.  Whatever these guys are paid, it's not enough.

As I've written before, staying in one place for extended periods of time enables you to really soak in the local culture.  Sure, lots of places have rodeos, but how many have them next to live oaks and salt marshes?