Rodeo Musings

Last night was the first of two nights of the annual benefit rodeo for Ridin' High (http://www.ridinhigh.org/). The opening ceremony involves the therapy students and the therapy horses doing a short demo of sorts. It is 3 minutes of a really meaningful part of what the program offers to the riders. Sniff sniff, tears here. Seriously it is very difficult not to just have tears well up when the announcer welcomes the riders, staff and horses into the arenas.

Well besides those big moments that are a culmination of the end of a year of riding, the rodeo is the big deal. Now I am the first to admit I am not a rodeo, country western type of gal, but I do appreciate a good horseman, fine horseflesh and friendly competition! I am not competitive anywhere in my bones though. While making many trips to and from the barn to the arena I had the opportunity to observe all the cow ponies there. Right outside the back of the arena entrance, many horses are tied and left to stand waiting for their owners. They all seem to take this in stride. No dancing around or kicking out at other horses.

I watched a lady get on a gray gelding out in this area. On one side of her is the row of horses and in the middle and on the other side of her are a handful of people sitting on their trusty steeds. This lady on this gray was totally absorbed in getting her lariat organized. She stepped on her horse and he immediately walked off, his head was down low and his reins sat behind his ears. I thought if his head went any lower he would soon be stepping on his reins. The owner was busy with her lariat and she didn't have a foot in the right stirrup so she was trying to reach forward and grab those reins, hold her lariat and get her foot in the stirrup all at once as her horse was moving off. (I was thinking, smart horse he was moving away from the arena opening towards the barns...) She rammed her toe into a lady's foot who was sitting on her horse talking to some fellows. She turned to see what she had hit and apologized to the rider as she was grabbing for her reins. I watched her practice her rope work above her head about knocking her hat off in the process. She was kinda comical in her total concentration of getting her rope organized.

The reason I was watching this is I had relieved the back door ticket collector for a moment so he could go retrieve his jacket from his truck. I had been about to make my 100th trip up to arena when I had noticed he was standing there shoulders hunched and shivering. I said hey you need a jacket and that is when I took over his job so he could run to his truck and I got to watch that cowgirl. By this time she had turned her horse facing the arena and was standing very near the line of horses tied to the rail. For some reason her horse was swinging his haunches sideways and backwards towards a horse standing there unable to get out of his way. That horse took offense and kicked out at this woman's gelding. He scooted out of the way the best he could and the woman looked around in a surprised reaction to see what had happened. The phrase "be with your horse" was light years away from this woman during all this time. I was thinking she was lucky she did not get hurt because she was so friggin' oblivious to all that was around her. But she sure had an awareness of that dang lariat, lol!

One of the things I noticed was the tack and gear on these horses. They wore protective leg boots and bell boots, and some had tie-downs as tight as they would go. I noticed how so few horses could actually stand still while being mounted and how the riders accommodated the horses by hopping on real quick like. But the thing I kept noticing was how so many horses could stand so quietly at the rail and look to be perfectly ok. Were they perfectly ok because no one was asking anything of them? There is a lot of hustle and bustle and hurry at these events. Get that steer, hurry hurry hurry, get over the finish line hurry hurry hurry.
How "with" the riders were these horses? How ok were the horses with what was being asked of them? How much attention did the riders give to the needs of their horses? Were those horses shut down or really ok with being there? Dunno, but sure had me wondering.

Might spend a bit more time this evening watching if I have a moment or two. I will let ya know what I see!