Last night's rodeo

I always thought rodeos were pretty stupid.  And I STILL ABSOLUTELY ABHOR country music.  But, since working with cattle and such, I have discovered that rodeo's evolved from meaningful competitions and games and such.  I also have a better understanding of the techniques used.  I still hate country music more than a Republican hates Obama. 

All that aside, the below shots were the best I could do.  The flash bounced off the railing causing dark photos, and when the flash was off, the shutter stayed open too long and made it all blurry.  But I did my best.  I even uploaded a nice little vid to you tube.  Ahh, aren't I sweet.  All pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.  So, allow me to explain the following:

The Queen-I think there was a contest including a written test, I really don't know.

 Saddle bronco.  I suppose this originated from Native Americans trying to tame Mustangs or something.

 Barrel racing.  This is just for competition.  I've heard it's bad for horses, so doing it a lot with one horse would be mean and bad.

 The rodeo "Zamboni"

 Lassoing a calf and tying 3 of its legs together.  If you've ever had to catch one of the little $#%, you would understand where this came from.  Speaking of which, we need to buy a new lasso rope.  Doing as necessary won't hurt them-no, seriously, it won't.

 This is obviously just a competition.

 Team lasso.  They attach pretend horns to the calf with a harness type thing and one guy lassos the head, while the other gets the hind feet.  You don't want to know how this originated (castration).

 I like this one.  You can see the look on her face where she missed with the rope.

 (what happens without the flash)

 Even the pros wear helmets now in bull riding.

 One kid walked "drunk" for a while after his fall.  Another got taken away on a stretcher.  He appeared OK, so I don't know what happened to him.

 This one's funny-everybody up!!  Whenever it would come their way, up they went and fast-hilarious!

 Marcus really enjoyed it, you can hear him some in the vid.  There was one really funny one, although I'm sure the guy did NOT find it amusing.  When you catch the calf, the horse it to pull back on it to hold it so you can tie it's feet together.  His horse kept walking real slow like letting the calf run off.  He finally got up and cussed him horse out-funny!