THE RODEO!

So we left off yesterday’s post with a biiiit of a cliff hanger. If you missed it, yesterday we went to a Denver University Hockey Game and the Denver Art Museum.

After the museum we headed home to shower and get ready for the National Western Rodeo, also known as the Superbowl of Rodeos! To say I was excited would be an understatement. I’ve been to stock show type events before, but the last time I went to the rodeo I was pretty little and didn’t remember much about it.

The actual rodeo wasn’t until 8, but we arrived plenty early since they had activities and an expo going on all day (well, all week actually). There were rows and rows different vendors on several floors of the exhibition hall, selling anything from food to clothes to anything you’d need for your ranch or farm. A few big companies were giving out free stuff if you entered to win (aka gave them your email and information), so of course we did. Got a camo koozie from Gator!

One of many fun items… I also test drove a Dodge Ram! Okay, sat in it… but I tested out the cup holder so that counts, right?

I also entered to win a truck, so I’m just waiting for that phone call to let me know I won. Still waiting…

While we were there they had some sort of alpaca competition going on. We were walking through part of the expo and a man yelled: “Alpacas coming through!” And then there they came! Totally normal…

They judged them kind of like a dog show, although they all looked pretty similar to me. Don’t worry, we didn’t watch for long.

Why not? Well we had a petting zoo to find!

This was pretty much awesome (and no, I’m not being sarcastic). They had a ton of goats, lambs, donkeys and alpacas roaming around in the petting zoo. Maddie fell in love with this miniature donkey, so cute!

After roaming around for several hours, having a few drinks and a lot of laughs, we headed into the coliseum for the rodeo! They really made quite a spectacle out of it, starting the show off with a bunch of pyrotechnics!

There were five events in this rodeo: bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, barrel racing, steer wrestling and bull riding.

I absolutely loved it. For all four riding events, the cowboy had to stay on the animal for 8 seconds and once those 8 seconds were up (if they hadn’t fallen off – most didn’t), two men on horses would come riding up next to them and the cowboy would grab onto one of them to get off and the other man would pull the strap off the animal to get him to calm down.

Steer wrestling was a little odd, they literally leapt off their horse onto a steer and threw it to the ground. Fastest time won. Haha not something I would try.

The barrel racing really had me on the edge of my seat though. This was the only event women competed in and it was a women’s only event. The cowgirls started outside of the arena, and then would race in on their horse and had to circle three barrels and race back out without tipping over the barrel. Tipping it over added 5 seconds per barrel, which basically meant you were out of the running. The fastest time won, and let me tell you it was down to the milliseconds. Every single cowgirl that didn’t hit a barrel came in at 15.something seconds!

At the end they did each event again, with the top contender from “Team Colorado” and the top contender from “Team World” competing, and then gave awards to the winner in each category. I was amazed to learn that these cowboys made their living doing these competitions, and a pretty good one at that!

I really loved getting to go to this rodeo and highly recommend going to one if you ever get the opportunity!

Well, now I’m off to spend my last half day here in Denver before heading off on my next adventure! Have a good Monday!

Have you ever been to a rodeo?

Have you ever been to a stock show? What’s your favorite farm animal? (yes, weird question)