2011 090311 Rodeo_0068 rustic

Well it's bulls and blood...
It's dust and mud
It's spurs and latigo
It's the ropes and the reins
And the joy and the pain
And they call the thing rodeo


Garth Brooks sings about it and I sing along with him in the privacy of my car where nobody can hear me, but that's not the point. The point is: The rodeo is fun! I love it, I love it, I love it.

You can find me hanging on the fence like a wide eyed groupie watching the "real" cowboys and cowgirls handle their horses. I mean, handle their horses in ways that make me clench my teeth, suck in air and look away. Then, in the very next second when the crowd roars, I don't dare take my eyes off the show as the horses speed the arena at full out run, carrying a rider with flailing legs and boots, chaps fluttering, hats flying through the air, and creating a hoof-stomping dust cloud. These riders and their horse partners, run, skid, slide, crash, flip over and fall down while the crowd gasps and cheers. Then they just get back up, dust off the dirt, get on their horse and ride out like nothing happened. And yes, my heart is still pounding.

Ouray (pronounced Your-Ray) County's Rodeo in Ouray Colorado always draws a big crowd for the Labor Day Rodeo and, as always, I am there crouching between fence rails, hiding in cranny or down on my belly in the dirt in search of an angle, but just out of range of a hoof or a rope.
2011 090311 Rodeo_0011 rt   2011 090311 Rodeo_0087
2011 090311 Rodeo_0173 rt    

A Rodeo 004 - Rope and hands wm   A Rodeo 10 - Hooves and Boots wm

A Rodeo 28 - Hands on rein   2011 090311 Rodeo_0295 rt face 3