Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo

Erin and I have just returned from our first ever trip to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.
The HLSR happens for a month every year - it's time for big hair and big belt-buckles....
Whenever the rodeo is in town, the population density of trucks increases exponentially.

We're not what you might call: 'Rodeo Folk.' There's a reason we've been here for almost four years and never attended - in spite of our curiosity. This year however, fortune smiled upon us and we got some free tickets from my work - so we went with a couple of work friends (Sarah and Kellen). In the evening there's your standard rodeo entertainment which consists of all manner of quadriped being ridden by all manner of human with various ropes and spurs thrown in for good measure.

The bull-riding, bronco-riding really freaks me out. I'm 'risk-averse.' There's a fine line between being manly and insanity... for me a bull trying to trample/gore you is on the wrong side of that line. There was this amazing chariot sort of race... a chuck wagon hitched to four horses taking on 2 other similar rigs. The winning chuck wagon finished with only three wheels and while I'm not an aficionado of the chuck wagon/rodeo circuit - I must say that it seemed like quite a feat.

By far the sweetest thing we saw was: Muttin' Bustin'. The concept is genius (potential social service/child labor issues aside). Here's what you do - grab a sheep, put it in a pen, strap a 4-5yr old kid to it's back... and open the hatch. The sheep comes shooting out and the kid is just holding on for dear life. They're not sitting upright on these things mind you... they're clinging bear hug style. Phenomenal. Our children will train on Battlecat and Kelsey until they are old enough to bust their own muttins. The little 5 yr old girl who won was hanging on the side of the sheep for the better part of the length of the stadium. She was interviewed afterwards and asked what she thought about winning to which she replied: I feel Happy.

After watching interviews with the professional rodeo folk - this gal was the most gifted orator of the bunch.

The calf scramble was also something of a spectacle. 28 high school FFA kids, 14 calfs... I guess they were suppose to subdue the calf using various wrestling (wrastlin' in rodeo vernacular) maneuvers and then tie it's head up somehow and drag it into a squared off area where adults would further tame the beast. Winner gets a gift certificate for a calf (who knew?) that they can raise for a year and show at next year's event.

The evening was capped by a performance from every one's favorite Aussie singing sensation: Keith Urban. I'm going to go ahead and admit that I am completely ignorant to all things country (western?). The only thing I knew about this dude was that he is married to Nicole Kidman who was apparently in the house (I'd like to think she'd heard tale of the muttin' bustin'). Anyway Mr. Urban did his thang from a rotating stage. Kellen commented that Urban looked like one of the guys from the Goo Goo Dolls... and one of the backup guitar players looked like the other guy from the Goo Goo Dolls so we may have uncovered a conspiracy.

At the beginning of the show Urban kept asking for the crowd to sing along... and there was silence. It was funny awkward - which is the best kind of funny in that setting. Later he pranced around the stadium switching between guitar and vocals flanked by 17 stage-hands and one dude who for some reason was running around with his mic stand.....I mean... he had a wireless mic... is that necessary? Perhaps Keith has a history of elbow/wrist related injuries... I don't know. Anyway we left during a song that had the lyrics: You can take your cat, just don't take my sweater... or something to that effect. I know I'll be considering the impact of those words for some time.

So the Rodeo.... good times. Looking forward to getting more into muttin' bustin'.