Heart of Texas Fair and Rodeo - the Rodeo

Tonight, we returned for the rodeo. We had box seats right near the bucking shoots. This made my daughter very happy.

Unfortunately for me, my camera is locked in my car, which is sitting at the dealership awaiting repairs. I have had to rely on my cell phone for all my recent shots. Don't get me wrong, it does a great job. It does not have a fast shutter, however, leaving me with excessive blurring of action shots.

You can see what I mean in this saddle-bronc shot....

Let's move on to some barrel riding...

On to the bull riding. This is my favorite. I rode a mechanical bull once — Believe me, holding on is a real challange. How these cowboys manage to do it with grace and style is beyond me...

The bulls won most of the contests, dumping their riders in less than eight seconds. To score at all, the rider must stay on the bull for at lease eight seconds. After eight seconds, the rider can score a maximum of fifty points for the ride and the bull can score a maximum of fifty points for trying to toss the rider. The two are added together for the final score.

Most of the bulls this year were Brahmans. They know that the faster they toss the rider, the sooner they can head for the gate and to the feed bin.

Here we go....

Going....

Gone... Another cowboy eats dust.

The calves used in the bulldogging and roping events have experience, perhaps too much experience. They know where the gate is and that to get there quick they have to avoid the cowboy or the ropes. They are pretty crafty about stopping short, turning fast, jumping through the lasso and so forth.

For you PETA types, no animals were injured during the rodeo. Cowboys, on the other hand, found the floor of the arena to be very hard - no broken bones or other major injuries, but lots of bruises and such.