a trip to the rodeo

One of the things that happens in this city during the Stampede is that distributors will take their customers to the Stampede or any one of a thousand events around town.  This year, EECOL Electric took a bunch of contractors to the rodeo performance and I got to go (prob'ly the one in the office that appreciates it the most, and this is the first time I've been asked if I wanted to go!).

We started out at 11:30 at what's called the 30X Saloon.  After a couple of beers, we were served a terrific lunch (I had strip loin with crab) and were sent out to the stands where there was a private section for us.  Our waitress followed us out there and ran drinks for us all afternoon.  I know what you're thinking, this has the makings of being a runaway, but I decided to tap 'er cool.  It ws 27*C (that's 82*F) officially, but down on the grounds with all of that concrete and pavement it had to be at least 32*.  It was hot enough that I knew if I stayed on the beer I would be pissed in no time flat so I drank a whole lot of water in between.  Got up to go have a smoke and use the facilities and when I got to the washroom my pants were stuck to me from sitting on a plastic seat and sweating.  Oh dear, I struggled long enough to get my pants down that I thought I was going to wet my pants!

The first calf roper out ran an amazing 6.6 seconds.  Wow!  Same guy came out yesterday and broke the arena record by posting a 6.3.  Man, that's rapid.  The great Freddie Whitfield isn't up until Pool B so I didn't get to see him rope live.  Might have to go back, huh?  Unfortunately Cord McCoy didn't manage to get his bull covered either Friday or Saturday, but stuck it to him yesterday with a score of 87, enough to tie him for first in the day money.  Hope he manages to stick with him today and make it to the finals.  The great bronc rider Roddie Hay didn't make it this year.  He took a bad step getting of a bronc a couple of weeks ago and broke his leg (bad).  Hope he heals up soon and is able to get back in the game.  In the ladies barrel racing, home town favorite Lindsay Sears ran second Friday on her back-up horse Moe and then switched things up Saturday to her good horse Martha and won the round.  She was back on Martha yesterday and tied for first.  Right now she's sitting second in the aggregate. 

For some reason The Stampede board decided to cancel both the wild cow milking and the wild horse race.  Both events are very fast paced and an absolute hoot to watch.  For those of you that don't know, the wild cow milking is when a team of three guys on foot rope a full grown Momma cow, the 'mugger' holds her head by the nose, and the 'milker' has to get enough milk in his bottle to have at least a drop come out when he runs across the finish line.  Sounds easy, right?  Wrong.  These are not your Bossy's off the farm, these are mossy old range cows who spend most of their time in the brush and it gets pretty 'western'. 

The wild horse race is another team effort.  Four teams go per heat with the horses loaded in the chute with halters and about 16' of lead shank attached.  When the horn goes, all chutes open at once and the horses fly out of there.  The mugger in this case basically tries to get the horse in a head lock long enough that the horse gets saddled.  After the saddle is on and cinched up, the 'jockey' gets on and has to ride the horse across the finish line.  As with the cow milkiing, these are not your everyday run of the mill saddle horses.  Most of them  are young bucking horses that are being tested out to go in to either bareback or saddle bronc events so it can get fairly wild and wooly too.

One of the events that they did keep was the wild pony race.  In this event, instead of all of the horses coming out at once, one pony is released in to the arena at once.  Three kids (sorry, don't know the age limits) have hold of him by a very long lead shank and have to overpower him enough that one kid gets on bareback and takes a tour.  It's pretty funny as they use Shetland ponies and mostly the ponies just drag the kids around the arena on their bellies but you've got to give the kids credit for their 'try'.  After watching this event, I totally understand why Dad never put us up on ponies, big hores only.  These things are nasty!

I met a very nice guy when we there and figgered that maybe something good would come out of it as he seemed very interested in me and asked for my number.  He asked me if I was staying for the wagons and grandstand performance but I had to tell him no, I had to go home and let my dogs out.  So far, so good.  He sent me a text message saying that he'd really like to see me again and I texted him back that I'd like that.  Well, after a little phone tag that night, we had a short conversation and he said he'd call me the next morning.  Ok, that looked good on paper...........................it's Monday, and he still hasn't called.  I never thought that he'd turn out to be one of 'those guys'!

Gotta go..............Happy Stampedeing!