I’ve always loved Nicholas Sparks novels. I’ve read each and every one. And, yes, I’m aware that at this point they are all pretty much exactly the same. I can pretty much determine within the first two chapters which two characters will fall in love. But I’m a sap for them. And now it seems that most of his books have been turned into movies, so, yes, I’ve seen each of those as well. Like I said, I’m just a sap for a good romance.
So when Matt, Liam and I walked into the last day of Montana State University’s Spring Rodeo on Sunday, I kept thinking about The Longest Ride. That book/movie is all I really know about rodeos. Namely, men sit on a crazy, bucking bull and try and stay on for eight seconds. And they can only use one hand (as if using two hands would be so easy!). And they get points for “style”. Though, after watching them I’m not sure what kind of style points they are looking for. In my opinion, if they can stay on with one hand I’m impressed.
Years ago, I tried to ride a mechanical bull. I remember watching how “slow” the bull moved and thinking, “I’ve got this!” and not even close to eight seconds later I was flat on my back. But, luckily when I fell, the bull didn’t try to trample me!
I did go to one rodeo back in high school. I might have been from a small town but horses and rodeos and ‘the country’ wasn’t really my scene. But, I did learn then about rodeo clowns. Otherwise, I would have been terribly confused at the clown running around on the dirt this weekend. I’d have just assumed his job with Barnum and Bailey was finally over and he was looking for the next best thing.
So, anyway, Liam was excited even before we walked in. The parking lot was filled with horses and the cowgirls/cowboys were trotting them along a path beside us. For the first hour and a half, Liam was completely content. He pointed at all the horses and told us what colors they were. When the cowboys would fall off, he’d point and say “fall down!”.
I didn’t realize all the different events that took place at a rodeo either. Though, I’m not sure why racing your horse down the arena (field? court? floor?), jumping off the horse, grabbing a poor goat, throwing it to the ground and then tying three of it’s feet together is an event, it was all very entertaining. There was also bucking horses and barrel racing and the lassoing events. I found myself cheering out loud for a lot of the events.
But each event was over so fast! There wasn’t one event that went anywhere close to 30 seconds. And I found myself so disappointed for each cowboy/cowgirl who got a “no score”. How frustrating to train for an event that is no longer than ten seconds and then get “no score”!
I hear there are a lot of rodeos around here in the summer in the “heat”. So, I’ll bet we’ll be seeing some more cowboys/cowgirls this summer. And next time I see a cowboy hat and boots in Liam’s future…!
