Went to the Rodeo last night. It is here for 2 weeks. It has been ranked the best Indoor Rodeo for the last 10 years. It is realy different watching one indoors vs outdoors. Don't have to freeze like when I went to Cloverdale. Misses some of the atmosphere though. Went through the cattle etc barns and the market place. Watched them do a demo on milking a cow with the machinery...with an education demo with it for the kids. Lots of education areas with baby chicks and lambs and what kind of wool comes from which type etc... cool to see what the differences are before I get them in my balls of wool to knit. The barns are humungous and the market place sells lots of stuff from food dips, bed mattresses, leather purses, cowboy hats and clothes. There was one booth that was selling some kind of ointment for you leather that brings them back. They did my boots and they are like new again. It works on leather furniture or interior of your car etc but since I don't have that I took the free boot revival and off I went . There is a big midway there as well.
Then I went to the Rodeo session at 7:30 inside the AT&T center where the spurs play. The rodeo had a military appreciation night so there were over 50 new recruits sworn in on the rodeo floor by a 3 star general that we got to watch... they had to say their oath etc. I got to see barrel racing, roping with one guy with his horse and he gets the cow and then ties him up, there is one where two guys rope - one the head and one the feet, bull riding, bare back broncos, bucking broncos with a saddle, one guy jumping off his horse onto the cow and flip him on his side. There were a bunch of horses at the beginning doing a bunch of figure 8's etc. No where near as good as the musical ride but they try... there was one guy with 6 horses riding around with only harnesses connecting the 6 and he had one foot on one of each of the first two horses. That was pretty cool to watch. Then the kids were really cute. 4 to 6 year olds trying to ride - hold on for dear life onto a sheep. One little 4 year old girl refused to go on in the end - it is called mutton busting - very weird. They then let a bunch of cows loose in the arena and then kids from various 4H clubs ran around trying to catch them, put a rope around the cow and drag it into a marked area to earn money for they club. The kids also had another event where they were trying to take down calves like the cowboys take down the cows.
Eli Young Band played after the rodeo was done. Wounded soldiers got to sit close to the stage. At one point one of the soldiers took off his leg and gave it to Eli and everyone cheered for the soldiers. Many times throughout the night the people who had served or are still serving were asked to stand and all cheered - They were everywhere - there are 3 bases in San Antonio so lots of military everywhere. Jim and I golfed this morning and were paired with two military guys. They were hilarious - joking all of the time so we had a great time.
 |
| New Military troops being sworn in |
 |
| Barrel race set up - Whataburger on the Barrels as a sponsor |
 |
| Chutes on this end for the bucking dudes - roping from the other end |
 |
| Set up for band at end of night surrounded by wounded soldiers |
 |
| kid glowing in white - his mom was taking a picture at the same time... he was so cool lookng with his cowboy hat, boots, cool shirt etc... he will definitely be on the floor of the rodeo when he grows up. Just has the look for now. |
 |
| I was in the nose bleed section but could see everything just fine |
