This weekend an indoor rodeo came to town.

In case you didn’t know…I used to compete in rodeos growing up.  My mom and dad competed in the IPRA rodeos, and then when my sister and I were old enough we competed in the Little Britches Rodeos and then in the High School Rodeo Association.  I did barrel racing, pole bending, break-away roping and goat tying.

I don’t even know how many rodeos I competed in, much less attended where my parents competed in them.

Our kids had never seen a rodeo.

How far I have fallen, eh!

The week leading up to the rodeo, the Facebook page for it put out a call for kids to compete in mutton bustin’ (basically, little kids ride a sheep and try to stay on as long as possible).  They had to be 5 years old and less than 50lbs.  That left Kai out, but I asked Anya if she was interested.  She weighed herself (50.5 lbs) and watched some You Tube videos and decided to do it.

They let her ride, since she was so close to the break point.  A few days beforehand she said she was a little scared.  “What if they laugh at me?”

I told her they would probably laugh, but not in a mean way.  They just think it is fun and silly to see kids ride the sheep, but when you are done they will clap for you.  I was more excited than she was!  When I was a kid I would have loved to do that…especially, if I beat everyone.

Nope…not competitive at all. 😉

That got her more excited.

Here she is all geared up and being put on the sheep.  They had a protective vest and helmet for the kids.

And…the video:

 Then here are a few other pictures from the rodeo.  The one with the bullfighter…he is doing a backflip over the Mexican fighting bull.  In the end, he got trashed.  He got a bit to close and got hooked.

 

Then this was a bad crash.  I got a picture as the horse went down.  The horse was fine, but the cowboy had to be taken to the hospital.  He had a broken pelvis and was in the ICU.

There were lots of crashes that night.

The kids had a great time, so their first rodeo went well.  They want to go again!  We will have to find some rodeos in the area in the summertime, which have all of the events.  I think there are a few that are within an hour away, so I will put that on our summer excursion list! 🙂