The Rodeo!

The town of Carbondale has a Rodeo every week during the summer. They invite anyone from novice to pro to join. You can certainly tell the difference😂 We arrived early to get seats and we're glad we did. By the end of the night we were shoulder to shoulder and a bit uncomfortable. It sure was fun though! 

We were fortunate enough to land on a night where they had free pony rides. The boys were into it! 

It was breast cancer awareness night so we got free pink cowboy hats. At first, none of the boys wanted to wear pink. Then they all started to get jealous of mine so by the the end of the evening we had 5 boys in pink hats!

The activity we saw the most was roping. It consists of a team of two. The first cowboy must rope the head of the steer and then the partner has to rope the feet. Each cowboy only gets one shot. So if the first guy misses then it's over. Some of them were quite quick!

They opened with prayer in Jesus' name and the American flag riding around the arena. Our kind of rodeo!

The most entertaining portion of the night came from mutton bustin. If you've never seen it, these people put a helmet and heavy vest on little kids (ages 3-5) and lift them onto a sheep. The child grabs tight then they let the sheep go and it races across the arena. The child to get the farthest before falling off wins. At least 7/10 children were sobbing afterwards. It was sad and hilarious all at the same time! 

Notice the child laying flat on the ground next to the sheep!😂

Another entertaining sport was another team of 2 event. The first cowboy is on a horse and chases the steer down. They have to rope the steer on the first try...

...his partner is running close behind. This cowboy must chase down the roped steer, grab a ribbon off its tail and race back to the starting line. The team to bring the ribbon back successfully in the fastest time wins. 

This kid was bookin' it!

The last portion of the night (of which I got no good photos) was where our boys were part of a calf scramble. There were about 50 kids ages 3-9 in the arena. They let loose about 10 calves, 3 of which have ribbons on the tails. The three kids to successfully bring back a ribbon win a prize. The boys had fun but were a bit overwhelmed with the crowd of kids. Not to mention the calves are bigger in person and faster than we thought! But everyone had a great time and they're asking to go again! I'll have to get a true cowboy hat this time around. When in Rome🤠