Sunday, June 17, 2007

Ride 'em, cowboy!

Hi. It was a busy Sunday here. We spent it at my mom's house, working on things there. The neverending story. (Or so it seems.) We also visited her.

Friday night, I covered a truck pull. A bunch of trucks came out and pulled a weighted sled for distance. Saturday, we had the demolition derby. A bunch of cars came out and bashed into each other until only one was (just barely) running.

One weekend earlier, we had the rodeo in town, and that's primo camera fodder. So why am I wasting time with words? It's the photos you want to see, right?

So here we go. Here is a bareback bronc rider ...
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See all the pink? On the rider, the judges and some of the fans? I should explain.

It was the first performance, which had a "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" theme to promote the Deanna Favre Hope Foundation, started by the wife of Brett Favre, the Green Bay Packers' quarterback, who recently battled breast cancer. She had a lumpectomy followed by chemo.

After that ordeal, she started the Deanna Favre Hope Foundation, which "supports breast cancer education, women's breast imaging and diagnosis services for all women, including those who are medically underserved." So far, Deanna Favre's cancer has not returned.

Back to the cowpokes. Here is a steer wrestler ...
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Sometimes the steers zig when the cowboys zag, and you wind up with this ...
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Even if the cowboy catches the steer, he has to turn it over onto its side, which is easier said than done ...
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After that, the saddle broncs burst out of the gate ...
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And the riders have to hang on ...
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They try their best to stay in the saddle ...
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But again the bronc often wins the battle, and the cowboy is left spitting out dust ...
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Calf roping is a fast and furious event ...
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But we know that you want to see these calves' big daddies get out and rock. Here is a top cowboy who came up here all the way from Oklahoma ...
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... only to be thrown to the arena dirt before his eight-second ride was over ...
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When the gate opens, the bull spins and jumps and twists and does anything he can think of to throw the cowboy ...
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Fans got to see the rodeo clowns at work. If you thrive on adrenaline, this kind of job might be right up your alley. Example: Here's a cowboy doing pretty good during his ride ...
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But when he hit the dirt, he came down right in front of the bull. Oh-ohhh! You don't want something as big as this trying to horn in on your business ...
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But the clown was already running in, distracting the bull from the fallen rider ...
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And it worked. The bull went after the clown, and the cowboy was able to get up and run to safety ...
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Uhh, no. If it's all the same, I think I'm happier getting pictures from the other side of the fence.

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