Rodeo…

The first event of the 77th Annual Sheridan Professional Circuit Rodeo was the Indian Relay – about 6 guys riding these incredibly beautiful ponies bareback in a no rules, no hold barred, crazy race. Once around the track on one horse, then jump off, and jump onto another. The fact that while they were jumping off, and jumping on the next one, there were another 5 crazed horses bearing down on them, and another 5 crazed guys doing the same thing, so the transition area was just an accident waiting to happen, well that is irrelevant. Laurie in particular was gob-smacked – he sat there with his mouth open, unable to believe his eyes. In fact the whole evening was like that – just constant action, beautiful horses, crazy riders. The horses were so well trained, they could go from a standing start to flat out gallop in about three strides. The first bronc rider was an Australian, from Queensland; he scored the equal highest score of the evening, much to Alice and Laurie’s patriotic delight. This of course got some conversations going between us and others in the stands – it reminded me a bit of the show at Tallangatta, but on a much bigger scale. The locals were very friendly, and “security” consisted of guys from the local baseball team, in their baseball tops, with a “Security” arm band – in other words, none was needed. People came around selling beers out of buckets of ice, and sodas out of other buckets of ice, and throwing M and M’s into the crowd – it was a great way to spend a summer’s evening. Just one more of the many memories the kids will have.