Cowpunchers Reunion

On Saturday, we drove from the ranch to Williams for the Cowpunchers Reunion Rodeo. In spite of the rain we'd had, we managed to make it both there and back. It's worth saying that because of how much mud rain in this part of the country makes - and most of the roads are dirt this far out. Check out the back of the Suburban - that's dirt, not paint, and it's not just a thin layer, either.

The reunion rodeo was great fun. The arena was a sea of mud, but the rain held off while the events ran. The participants are working cowpunchers, rather than rodeo professionals, so things are a little different, a little less extreme, and a lot more "real."


The first event was a wild horse race. Unbroken horses were released from the bucking chutes under the announcer's box. Teams of three cowboys tried to saddle and ride a horse over to a barrel on the left of the stands.


The horses came out, the men grabbed at them, and promptly got pulled through the mud.


It wasn't pretty. But a few of the teams managed the saddle and managed the ride. Not very quickly, but they got it done.


The shear muddiness was astonishing.


After that, they dallied calves. A calf was released from a chute on the left side of the arena and a mounted cowboy rods the calf down and roped it.


He then dallied the rope around his saddle horn (wrapped it, rather than putting a slip-knot around the horn), dismounted, ran over to it, literally picked it up off the ground, and body-slammed it down in the mud.


Then he tied three of its feet together and his time was called. The fastest managed it in just over 14 seconds.


Then they had steer riding. Kids - under 12 years old - rode bucking steers. A couple of them were quite good at it. One got stepped on, but ended up being alright.


After the steer riding, they had an event called ribbon roping. A cowboy roped the head of a calf and his wife, girlfriend, or daughter ran to the roped calf, pulled a ribbon off of its tail, and ran back across a line to stop the timer. Three of the girls were daughters and were maybe 6 years old. They had a mugger who tackled the calf to hold it still while they went for the ribbon.


After that, they had the first round of bronco riding. Broncos make for dramatic pictures - especially when cowboys are crashing into the mud.


Here's one of the cowboys from the O RO in his way off the bronco. He got fouled on his way out of the chute - his knee hit the post and it knocked him off balance. He held on for several seconds, but each time the bronc bucked, it knocked him further off balance. Then he lost the rope and went over the bronc's head. He could have called for a re-ride, but was too shook up to think about it until it was too late.


I won't put all of the bronco pictures in this post, but you should click through on one of them to Picasa and see the lot of them. Tracy took the majority - we both got some great shots.


Between the two sections of bronco riding, they had wild cow milking. A cow was released from the shoot on the left, a cowboy ran it down and roped it.


Two other cowboys on the team then ran to the roped cow. One of them mugged it: grabbed horn and hugged the cow's head to his chest.


The other attempted to get a little milk into a container he was holding. He then ran to a circle chalked in the mud to stop the timer. It was quite amusing to watch.


After that were some lower-key team roping events (one roped the head, another the hind feet) and the rodeo wrapped up.