A Rodeo for Kids

Our local rodeo has a 4-day run--the first day is Family Night, a free event sponsored by a local bank branch.  Events are available for children aged 2-16 years. This year, 138 children participated.  Winners of the various events earn a beautiful buckle; this year, a 5-year-old girl won two buckles, both in events on horseback.  It's an extremely popular evening. The animals involved include goats, sheep, cows, and horses.

This little one would like to hold the rope which has a goat on the other end.

One heat of the popular stick horse race; watching the parents is half the fun.

Rodeo royalty always have the job of handling the reluctant goats.

This little boy just had his 2nd birthday; he really didn't understand the object of the "race" was to untie the ribbon tied around the goat's tail.  I LOVE the look he is giving his dad while others are trying to help him do what he came for! 

Mom explains what to do by showing him a video; he runs so happily...and he pets the goat!

This 10-year-old rode her horse from the end of the arena, jumped off, grabbed the goat's tether and wrestled it to the ground.  Then she "hog-tied" the goat's 4 legs so it couldn't kick free in 10 seconds. (She won a buckle!)

"Dummy roping" --the goal is to throw a loop over the dummy steer's horns or head. 

"Mutton busting" involves trying to ride a sheep with only a rope to hang onto. She yelled the entire ride.

As he came out of the chute, he slipped to the side; the outcome became obvious in the next few steps.

This 5-year-old participated in the stake race.

I call this "Grandpa fail" because the grandson hit the dirt when the pony's saddle came off!

Later evening events included the barrel race...riding a horse in a cloverleaf pattern around three barrels in a timed event.  It was decided that the horses didn't like the white barrels!

This 5 year old rode a horse to win the age group in pole bending and barrels.

P52 - Week #27

I would love to be a rodeo photographer...amateur, of course.  However, it needs to be daytime rodeo.  Several years ago, our local rodeo was three performances, two evening and one afternoon.  Photographing action such as calf roping, barrel racing, bronc and bull riding was relatively simple --even from the grandstand.  I used a Pentax camera with a 70-300 mm telephoto lens.  Those were the days! Now the rodeo has only evening performances and I simply don't have a lens that is adequate for action in the low light.  It has changed my whole attitude about photographing during the four days of rodeo action. 

"Extra" ropers and barrel racers compete during "slack," which is after the first evening performance and in the morning of the next day.  I would rather photograph the bronc and bull riding, but it's no longer workable.  This year, I spent some time one morning during roping slack.  Next year, I will rent the lens that I need.

Bulls

Two weeks ago, our local rodeo began its four-day run.  Photographing the rodeo events has always been enjoyable for me, but evening rodeos have become almost impossible to photograph. I know I need a better lens, but I go back and forth about buying a $1200 lens for one rodeo a year.  This was the year I wished I had invested.  So few of my action shots were in focus...in fact, nothing in the image was in focus!  Next year...

P52 Sweet Shot Tuesday #28

I really don't know how someone like me, who takes so many photos each week, can't seem to post anything for that week!   This past week has been our town's annual rodeo...called The Elgin Stampede.  It began on Wednesday night with Family Night, 264 kids from age 2 to 18 competing in various rodeo-type events. Thursday night, it was bull riding, with 24 cowboys of all skill levels competing for big money; Friday and Saturday nights were the regular rodeo events--and it rained.

Before everything starts, one of my favorite photo opportunities is watching the rodeo stock--bucking horses and bulls--be unloaded from the trucks that transported them from the neighboring state.  Once unloaded into pens, the horses are turned out to green pasture behind the rodeo grounds for two days, until it's their turn to "work."  I've chosen one of those photos as #28 for Kent Weakley's P52 Sweet Shot Tuesday.  

P52 Sweet Shot Tuesday #24

ser·en·dip·i·tous

ˌserənˈdipədəs/

adjective

1. occurring or discovered by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

I love serendipitous images when I'm carrying my camera.  In fact, my favorite photographs are often the result of "chance."  My choice for Week 24 of Kent Weakley's P52 Sweet Shot Tuesday is the outcome of just such an occurrence.  I was strolling around a livestock show and stopped to visit the barn where the horses belonging to the show's rodeo royalty were kept.  After a few photos of the horses, I stopped at the door when I saw these boots lying under the edge of the court's horse trailer. They obviously belonged to either the queen or one of the three princesses.  They're beautiful boots...most likely expensive, and they show signs of work wear.  But they had evidently been switched out for the dressy "official"  boots.

  

Rodeo Re-Cap

Over a period of four days, I took hundreds of photos of the 67th annual Elgin Stampede in our little town, population 1700.  These are representative of the rodeo activities:

A local 15-year-old presented the flag at the Saturday show

Calf roping...also known as "tie-down roping"

Saddle bronc riding. There is also bareback riding: the cowboy doesn't have a saddle

Steer wrestling, once known as "bulldogging"

Barrel racing, an all-female event -- a timed event with 3 barrels in a cloverleaf pattern

A local 14-year-old barrel racer

Stampede drill team -- all-female group

Team Roping: one cowboy "heads" by roping the horns and his partner "heels" by catching the back legs

Bull riding: like all riding events, the cowboy tries to stay on for 8 seconds

The bulls won more often than the cowboys

Many modern bull riders wear helmets in addition to protective vests in this dangerous event

It's Rodeo Week!

I love the four days of rodeo in our little town....and I intend to go to every event!  Little kids on Family Night, bull riders and barrel racers on Friday, Kiddie Parade on Saturday morning and full rodeo on Saturday night, Grand Parade on Sunday morning and last rodeo on Sunday afternoon.  I really enjoy photographing rodeo events, and I'l be posting a few images here.

This is my late niece's stepson, a young man who works on a farm during the week and fights bulls on the weekends.  His job is to protect the cowboys on the ground from the bulls.  In this sequence, notice where the rider is (he's wearing the helmet; he was thrown off before the 8 seconds were up) in each photo.  Sean, on the other hand, is right in the thick of things, drawing the bull away from the rider.