![]() The top barrel racer in the country has already made nearly six figures this season, and there are a litany of rodeos left to go in the year. Oh, and you cannot, must not, touch the horse with that free hand. Not only is the rider scored, but the horse is too. Feet move too early? 10 second penalty, and time counts to your score. It’s like trying to keep your feet on the front of a toilet seat while you sit there, but in a 10.4 magnitude earthquake. The rider not only has to stay on that horse for eight seconds, but has to keep his boots ABOVE THE HORSES SHOULDERS WITH HIS SPURS TOUCHING THE HORSE until after the horse’s front feet have landed from his first jump. Translated into modern rodeo: a rider with a leather rig for his hand not much wider than the rope described above, rides a horse with no saddle from out of a chute. With nothing but one of those two things to hold onto, one held on for dear life. ![]() When cowboys would go “bronco bustin”, or taming wild horses to ride, a cowboy would jump onto the back of a horse and grab its mane, or would have a rope loosely wrapped around the horse’s ribs that would cinch as he got on. Each is about as up close and personal with the animals as the riders get in a rodeo.īareback riding stems from the early days of wild horse taming, much like Wild Horse race above. Some of the more did-you-see-that? moments in rodeo come from a couple of events it’s hard to believe exist until you see them in person, Bareback Riding, and Steer Wrestling. The precision and skill of any of the roping riders, especially these pros, is astounding, and still many of the best of the best will fail to snag anything but air on the big stage. The 10 teams that are participating always have… varied outcomes. When it comes to the Wild Horse race described above, a set of three cowboys, each with his own designated role in the goal, are set to saddle and ride one of those usually-unridden horses that passed me by other morning, and ride it across a finish line. The skills it takes to do some of what these people do is nothing short of insane. If you’ve never seen a rodeo up close and in person, or got to see something amateurish once, nothing can quite prepare you for the power, grace, and athleticism of both the riders and the ridden in Pro Rodeo. The “World’s Largest Outdoor Rodeo and Western Celebration” will put on a show with some of rodeo’s finest athletes competing for their points in one of the PRCA’s most prestigious events of the year. But even with all of that literal horsepower, the biggest draw just north of the Colorado border the next 10 days is the Daddy of ‘Em All. Their arrival kicks off a week and a half of pancake breakfasts and parades, carnivals and national music acts. What I was witnessing was the unofficial kickoff of the 127th Cheyenne Frontier Days, as the horses who would make up the equine portion of the Wild Horse Race were herded into town from the land they occupy outside the city. She said while it wasn’t, it wasn’t a first, it happened once a year. I asked her if this was a typical morning. My reality was bent a little and my jaw felt like it was on my knees as my cousin came out and smiled. I could see several more passing in the same direction a block further away from us. Suddenly, a half dozen horses passed by me, and my heart was thumping. The horse was moving fast enough that his gallop sounded like more than one horse. I lowered the cup enough to confirm that indeed, a riderless and saddleless horse had just passed me by at a pretty good clip. I was semi-looking across the street with a cup obscuring the better part of my view, when what looked a lot like a horse crossed across what little of the world I could still see. But a couple days ago, I was sitting on my cousin’s front patio, and saw another never-before first. Opening my camper to an Easter sunrise service at Horsetooth Reservoir above Fort Collins is one of the best front patio views I’ve ever had. A beachside Saint Augustine patio gave me a sunrise over the Atlantic that is often my last dream before I wake up. One morning, sitting on a New York City stoop, I saw a parade of naked bicyclists ride by, and was left with an uncomfortable number of saddle questions. ![]()
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