Headed out for the AT&T Stadium (home of the San Antonio Spurs) where the rodeo is held about 4 pm. I thought I would be able to find some fair food there to eat - all they had was corn dogs, kettle corn, and weak beer. Texans have some strange ideas about fair food. I did eat a corn dog with a bottle of water I brought with me. Then went into the Coliseum, where the rodeo shops were set up. I bought 2 rodeo T-shirts for myself since I had only brought one short sleeved shirt with me and the temps were in the 80s the past two days. There was a LOT of stuff in there! I found an unoccupied bench outside the Coliseum, so sat down and called Brendyn. We talked about Valentine's Day for a while.
By this time, it was a little after 6 pm, and time to go inside AT&T Stadium to find my seat. Stopped at the Rock and Brew tavern inside the stadium for a local porter beer - pretty good - and did some writing in my journal. I found my seat up in the nose-bleed section - Section 220, Row 4, Seat 10 and settled in. Their opening ceremonies were just as ridiculous as I thought they would be. Hokey and overly patriotic, with pounding music. I did buy a program which explained how the scoring system works, so I read that. It is not just all about time. Time accounts for half the score, 25% is based on style points for the cowboy, and 25% is based on style points for the horse or bull.
Then the rodeo started! The bare-backed bucking broncos competition was up first on my side of the arena. The clock starts at 8 seconds and runs down to 0; the goal is to survive for 8 seconds. But the rider is also given points for his style and the horse is also given points to being "spirited." They add the points for how long he stayed on the horse (50 points possible for 8 seconds), and all the style points to give a final score. Most of the scores were in the 70 to high 80s range. Some cowboys barely made it past the shoot and some stayed on for 8 seconds - or more. A couple of wranglers on horseback flank the bronco on both sides at the end of the ride. This calms him down. The cowboy slides off the bronco and onto one of the other horses, while the 2nd wrangler pulls off the bucking belt. This really calms him down. And the bronco trots back to the pen. They are well trained!
I really had to admire the skill of the wranglers who have to ride up on an angry horse, calm him down, and lead him back to the pen. A couple of horses just did not want to go back. The "Iowa cowboy" mentioned in the first segment won 1st place with a score or 87 on the night I was there.
Next up was the steer wrestling competition at the opposite end of the arena. The set-ups are different for the bucking competitions and the roping competitions. The rodeo alternates sides of the arena so that the next event can be set up. The steer wrestling competition is solely a timed event. The steer is let loose out of the pen, and the cowboy on horse rides out of his enclosure, rides up on the steer, jumps off his horse, grabs the steer by the horns and wrestles him to the ground. The winner did it all in 4.1 seconds. I should mention that if the cowboy breaks thru the rope at the front of his enclosure before the steer gets out of his pen, he is penalized. There was one cowboy from Minnesota doing the steer wrestling - J.D. Struxness from Appleton, Minnesota. He tied for second place with 4.5 seconds.
Next up was the calf roping team activity on the same end of the arena. Again, the two-person team had to wait for the calf to get out of his pen first. The one cowboy would rope the calf around his neck, and then next the other cowboy had to rope both hind legs and pull the calf down. This is also a timed activity, but points are deducted if the calf doesn't go down or if the 2nd cowboy only ropes on leg. Sometimes the calf just slipped away and neither cowboy got his rope around him. When this happened the calf just sauntered over to the pen on the other side of the arena. Again, well-trained!
It was now time for some entertainment. Little kids (like between the ages of 3 and 7) ride a sheep bare backed. This is called Mutton Bustin'. Most of the kids fell off within a couple of feet of the open pen gates. But one little 4-year-old girl (whose proud Grandpa was sitting next to me) made it about 3/4 of the way across the arena, and a 7-year-old boy whose father is one of the competitors at the rodeo also did well enough to win the event. The announcer made him kiss the Rodeo Queen, which he did very sweetly. The kids were all adorable and the whole event brought a lot of smiles to the crowd.
Next up was what I traditionally think of a calf roping. One cowboy, two ropes; he ropes the calf, and is off his horse and throwing the calf on its back before the rope tightens. Then with one hand he twirls the 2nd rope around 3 of the calf's legs. This is also a timed event, with time being added on if one of the legs slips out. What I didn't know is that the calf must stay down for 6 seconds; if he doesn't that also results in having time added the cowboy's score.
At this point, the cowgirls got to have one event - the barrel race. This was timed with an additional 5 minutes added for each overturned barrell. All the racers were very close in time with only about 1 minute separating all of them. Except for one who knocked over 2 barrels and got an extra 10 minutes added to her time. I believe the cowgirl on the left was the winner with the best time - 13.78 seconds - to race around 3 barrels and back to the pen. The barrels were provided by Whataburger with heavy advertising.
Next up was the saddled bucking bronc ride. Same rules as the barebacked bucking broncos. From the color commentary, it seemed like this event was one of the more popular ones and the horses themselves were pretty big stars. The horses got intros just like the cowboys. This was more lively than I expected. One cowboy got his spur caught in the horse's rope and was being dragged for probably about 40 feet. Scary. A cowboy who had come all the way from New Zealand won. Unfortunately, none of my saddled bronc photos turned out.More entertainment followed as about 30 tweeners were let loose with ropes and about 15 calves in the arena. They had to chase the calves around, get a rope around its neck, and lead it to the judges. Hilarity ensued. Only about 8 of the calves were actually rounded up. One young girl sat on her calf for more than 5 minutes, but could never get the rope around its neck. Most of the time, the animals just slipped thru the kids' fingers (or ropes as it were). Everyone in the place was belly laughing the whole time.
The grand finale! The event we were all waiting for. The bucking bull riding contest. Same rules as bucking broncs - again no saddle. They brought in 3 or 4 "clowns" whose very dangerous job was to calm down the bull, take the bucking belt off, the lead him back to the pen -- all on foot -- no horses this time. What a dangerous job! Those "clowns" are real professionals though! I filmed a few of the bull rides. Those cowboys were all really good at it, but this is dangerous work.
The total cash payout for all cowboy performers over the whole 2 week event was $1.675 million. There were 5 tranches with the top three winners getting some money in each tranch, so a lot of cowboys went away with at least a little money. But some went home with nothing. All in all, it was great entertainment. I did not stay for the Martina McBride concert because it was after 10 pm, and I was tired.
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