Let's all go to the rodeo.

The evening after the Days of '47 Parade we went to the Days of '47 Rodeo, also a first for me.  I'd seen rodeo stuff on TV, but never been to one life.  It's kind of like watching NASCAR, waiting for an accident to happen and then being horrified when something does happen.   I don't think I'll ever go to a rodeo again, but I'm glad I went at least once.  It was an interesting experience. 

Some of the things you'll see at the Days of '47 Rodeo:

Look down in the bottom right-hand corner, it says "Let me hear it" with lasers.

Bucking broncos

Cattle rasselin'

Rodeo clowns.  Here he is trying to shoot a hotdog, bun and all, up into the stands.  As you can see (methinks) the air gun pretty much shredded the hotdog.  For those of you not familiar with rodeos, the clown is not just there for entertainment.  As you'll see in a later photo, they are trained to distract the bull from a fallen rider.  I was amazed at how close they got to the bull, and somehow kept from getting gored by one of his horns.

Calf roping.  A few times the announcer talked about the "animal athletes".  It kind of reminded me of the one time I went to a WWF (pro-wrestling) match and commented on how it was all faked.  The people next to us argued 'till they were blue in the face that it was all real.  At the rodeo the announcer went on about how the cowboys weren't the only athletes, and about how much the animals really enjoyed their part in the rodeo.  Now, I don't want to get into a discussion about whether or not you can call this animal cruelty.  Part of me agrees with that, part of me sees the rodeo as a part of Western American culture and the animals do walk away seemingly unharmed, and they do look well taken care of.   But, I can't see how you can say either animal in the picture below is actually enjoying the experience.  Yet the audience hooted and hollered in complete agreement with the announcers claims that the animals were having a good time.

Wagon races.

A monkey riding a dog corralling sheep.

Awesome rope tricks.

And, of course, bull riding.  Here you can see the rodeo clowns heading to intercept the bull.

For the rest of the Rodeo pictures go here: Days of '47 Rodeo