Cheyenne Frontier Days: one of the biggest rodeos in the nation. I grew up watching rodeos on television but never have I attended a rodeo in person. That is, until today!
The morning started out early as I drove from just South of Fort Collins to arrive in Cheyenne when the doors opened. I arrived a little later than I wanted, but was able to track down some free parking and make the hike to the park. First, I visited the Indian Village, a area of trading and native dancing. Trust me, I could have spent the entire bank in this area, but I refrained. Then, I walked around the outside of the arena looking at all of the wares. As I was wandering around, there were tons of sculptures. The one that I found the best was one of a cowboy emptying out his boot:
After wandering around, I decided to hitch a ride to the front of the arena on a "shuttle" (or old wagon I should say). Two lovely ladies hitched a ride as well. Little did I know that these two young ladies were the one and only Cheyenne Frontier Days Queen and her lady in waiting. They were some of the first riders to appear once the show began:
The pomp and circumstance that opens the show is quite the spectacle. The color guard was presented and the show began:
The first event was the bull riding. The shutes were directly across the arena from me so I was able to view all of the riders coming out to ride. Of course, a rodeo would not be complete without clowns:
Sometimes, the bulls would just run right back into the pen after the ride. Other times, the riders there to assist, had to rope them in and make them go to where they needed them to go. The couple sitting next to me have been to hundreds of rodeos. His comment to me was that the bull pretty much does what he wants:
After the bull riding, came the calf roping. I couldn't figure out why the first couple of riders didn't get scored. Turns out that the rider has to rope BOTH of the horns. No horns or only one, and you get nothing:
After running out for icecream and a quick break, I arrived just in time to see the saddled bronc riders. These were amazing and beautiful:
Twice during the bronc rides, the broncos didn't want to come out of the chute. You may think this gate is opening, however, you will see the rider telling them to close the gate:
Next came the steer wrestling. Seriously folks, these calfs are about 450 to 500 pounds and the cowboys are an average of 200 pounds. The cool thing is that a Nebraska Cowboy won this event:
Then came the women! By this time, my camera batteries were really getting low so I wasn't able to get all of the pictures that I really would have liked. But I do like the one of this lady riding around the barrel:
After all of the main events, an entire line of cowboys came walking out into the arena. They were lined up in groups of 3 and all that was left on the program was the Wild Horse Race:
This was my FAVORITE part of the rodeo. They have all of the guys lined up and then they bring out the wild horses. Each of the teams of 3 are to take one of the wild ponies and hold it until the gun fires. At that point, they must saddle the horse and ride it around the arena 1 time. The team that is able to do this without losing the horse, is the winner. It was beautiful! I wish my camera would have been working well enough to get more photos of this because those wild horses were awesome!
I sent Mike a text right after it was over stating that we were definitely coming up to Cheyenne again next year. If you have the opportunity, I HIGHLY recommend it. These were the finals so these were the best of the best; worth it!
I have some homework to do and then I think I will call it a night.
C'ya!
