Rodeo Time!

Every year, in our small town, we welcome the cowboys and cowgirls from WildTime Productions to produce our annual professionnal rodeo and demonstrate their incredible riding skills.

First, the events started with our National Anthem and the Cowboy Prayer. Then we had the bareback riding, followed by the calf roping, rescue rider, barrel racing, Junior bull riding, saddle broncs, exchange rider, steer wrestling, poney express and finally the Bull riding!

Here are a few pictures of each event:

Bareback riding, riders must maintain position on the horse for 8 seconds, only one hand strapped to the horse. The free hand must not touch the horse.

Calf Roping: The rider must chase and rope one calf without breaking the barrier (giving a head start to the calf) in the shortest possible time. The calf must remain roped for 10 seconds.

Rescue Rider: This event consists of one rider on a horse and one on the ground. The horse and rider make their way at a full galop around the arena and must pick up the rider on the ground. This is one spectacular thing to see and is very hard for even the better riders to complete.

Then, it's my favorite event... Barrel Racing! This sport is exclusive to women in the professional rodeo circuit. The horse and rider must complete a clover-like pattern around 3 specially placed barrels, they must do it as fast as they can, without knocking a barrel down. I appreciate how the horses are able to go around the barrels at such speed, proves that they are very agile!

Then we had Junior Bull riding, where boys under 18 ride small breed bulls for 8 seconds... I was not interested in this, they shouldn't have put this in the professionnal rodeo...
Saddle Broncs: A lot like bareback riding, except that the rider is sitting on a saddle and holding onto a rope that is connected to the horse's halter. Rider has one free hand and cannot use it, must keep it above his head.

Exchange Rider: One rider on one horse, one on the ground. The horse and rider race around the arena. At one specefic point, the rider on the horse must get off of the horse and the one on the ground get on it and completes the circle in the fastest time. Look at the picture below, you can see the first rider at the right of the picture (getting up) and the second rider getting on the horse succesfully. This happens VERY quickly!
Steer Wrestling: Rider must capture and wrestled to the ground a steer, with the help of a hazer, who's job is to keep the steer close to the rider's horse. There is about as much failed attempts as successfull ones.


Poney Express: Very impressive display of ability. Two riders, each on a horse must race around the arena. The first racer has to leave their horse and get on the second horse as the rider on that last horse dismounts. The first rider on the new horse must complete the circle around the ring.

AND Last but not least... Bull Riding: The rider must remain on a bucking bull for 8 seconds, one hand is tied to the bull and one free hand must not touch the bull. Points are granted for style of the rider and intensity of the bull.

I hope you've enjoyed my pictures... if my camera had been better quality I could've taken much better pictures.

This rodeo is not like the bad rodeos you see out there. No animals are harmed, they are well treated and are all fat and seem content. The bucking stock know their jobs and love it. I have been behind the scenes, where they keep all of them and all have good clean water and the staff ensures that the water is of quality and good feed. The staff is pretty oriented on taking the best care possible of their stock. Everyone works hard to bring a good show and ensure security.

I enjoy this event every year, coming from a small town, there is not much to bring tourists and new faces to us... this event is one of them and I hope it remains that way for a long time. Our small town economy has gone down the drain with the recession and this helps bring new dollars into our village.