Saturday, July 19, 2008

Friday night rodeo lights

No, the tickets didn't surface, but a friend ended up with extras, so things worked out after all. The weather was perfect - mid-70's by evening's end, light breeze, not too many bugs. So many years it's been 90's or low 100's: just plain miserably hot and humid.

The drill team looked good - only 12 members this year, and they didn't get much chance to practice.
Corn Palace Stampede Drill Team 2008

I talked to a couple of the ladies before the show, and they said Thursday's performance was rough. Everything last night went pretty smoothly except for one extremely close pass through. The horses didn't quite collide, but they brushed pretty hard. The impact made one of the riders lose her grip on her flag, and when it fell it stuck in the flag boot - luckily her horse didn't completely freak, and she was able to drop the flag and finish out the routine successfully.

Post-Candy Scramble

Rail-side Munchkins
The kids were rapt - the number parked down along the edge of the concrete multiplied through the evening, as the excitement in the arena drew them down out of the stands.

Hard-working horses

The steer wrestling was a run of highs and lows. A lot of riders missed or overran. There were only a couple of really good runs. I like watching the horses work, though.

Overall impressions: this year's roughstock isn't the best I've seen them bring. A lot of the entered cowboys in those events canceled to go places with better draws, and they turned out a lot of rough stock loose. The crowd had fun, and the main entertainment, the Riata Ranch Cowboy Girls act (I know, I know, but I didn't pick the name!) was pretty thrilling to watch. There were a couple of really sweet barrel runs, but even a 15.90 second run wasn't enough to knock Thursday night's winner out of first place overall.

That's it for now, as we promised the kids we'd make it to the rodeo parade and we need to get them rousted. Looks like it will be a lovely morning for spectating, too!

2 comments:

buckpony said...

Oh, that looks like SO much fun - for kids and adults alike! We have one rodeo a year that comes to Montgomery. It has become so expensive to attend that we no longer go. So sad. We all loved it! The last time we went, it cost over $200 for the night! The most expensive part was purchasing the tickets for a family of five!! Boy, the weather you had for the rodeo was perfect!!!

SunnySD said...

We were really blessed with good weather.

The nice thing about living in rodeo country - tickets are still reasonably priced. And everyone goes! It's a truly community event, at least this one is. A local trail riding group even helps park the cars all four nights (on horseback), and the clowns & main acts usually visit the public library one day and show off for the summer reading program.