Xena and Babalouie have been participating in the 4-H rodeos in SD because MN has no equivalent event. Every weekend throughout the summer, Megan has been packing up the kids and horses into her trailer and they've been venturing west to compete. They've been having a blast!
Tyler, who grew up participating in AAU traveling basketball, says he's never seen anything in sports like the rodeo circuit. He says the atmosphere is pure sportsmanship and community, without the cut throat competition, trash talk and parental ambition that corrupts most youth sports in America these days.
Over the course of the summer, our warrior princess qualified in three events for the state finals. Naturally, Jay and I booked our room in Ft. Pierre as soon as she did so.
We arrived on Friday in good time for the opening ceremonies, which were at 5:00 pm. We briefly considered putting on jeans and Jay even brought a pair of boots, but it was 106 under a cloudless sky and we figured, who are we kidding? We aren't cowboys! So we headed to the arena in our shorts and flip flops. Right away, I noticed that the vast majority of competitors and their families were wearing shades of teal; shirts, jewelry, tack etc. We found out this was in honor of a young cowboy who died in June.
Much like the Olympics, a rodeo begins with an opening ceremony. This ceremony features riders, flags and the national anthem. It is really cool and very moving, even without the additions we saw this weekend. When the rodeo community suffers a loss, they have what is known as the riderless horse ceremony. The military does the same thing; a riderless horse in full tack is lead before the field to remind us of those who are missing. While the horse was lead out for our young cowboy, the announcer gave a heartfelt eulogy and said a prayer. There wasn't a dry eye in the arena. We could see what Ty meant about it being a real community.
Then everyone wiped their eyes and the fun began.
The fair grounds where the rodeo took place featured three arenas; the big one where the barrel riding and rough stock events took place and two slightly smaller arenas for pole bending, goat tying, break away, flag race and ribbon racing. From the grandstand you could see almost everything but there were other stands of bleachers by each of the arenas for a closer view of whichever event you were most interested in. It was packed, hot, exciting and fun!
There are only two such state final 4-H events in the country, so this one drew kids from all around. There were nearly 700 contestants! Add their familes and horses and you have yourself a jam packed weekend of fun. The fair grounds all around the arenas were filled with the horse trailers that each cowboy family lived in for the duration. Ty and Megan found a spot very close to Megan's brother Owen and his wife Shannon, whose two kids, E and W were also competing in several events.
Xena's event on Friday evening was pole bending. This is a race in which the rider demonstrates control over their horse by weaving between poles set the length of the arena as fast as possible without knocking any over. Xena had a PR on her Friday night run! She finished in the top 15 in a field of nearly 80. Not bad at all! Especially when you realize she's one of the youngest in the pack.
Despite the heat, there is a very specific dress code for rodeo participants: boots, jeans, a button down shirt and hat. If a rider is missing any of these elements, it's a DQ. Your hat can blow off but only after your ride starts. If it blows off in the box, you don't score.
Between events, we explored the grounds, checked out the stalls where the horses were quartered, shopped the stalls beneath the grandstand, where food, drinks and ice cream were available and got some respite from the heat in the air conditioned trailers. We drank lots of water but man, it was hot.
Ty, Megan and the kids were staying in their air conditioned trailer but Ty, Xena and Babalouie came to our hotel to jump in the pool and shower off before bed. Nine o'clock Saturday morning, we were all ready to do it again.
Saturday I noticed that where everyone had been dressed in teal the day before, now all the cowboys and fans were dressed in pink! This was to honor a local rodeo family who had tragically lost two grandparents and a baby girl in a freak explosion in May. Opening ceremonies included two riderless horses and a riderless pony in pink tack. I'm telling you, Danny Boy never got a more emotional response at a funeral as that pony did at the rodeo. I saw hundreds of cowboys dressed pink, crying their eyes out.
And then they dried their eyes and got to work.
Oh, did they get to work.
Saturday, Xena competed in the junior girls (11-14) breakaway. Breakaway roping is where you chase a calf out of the box and drop a loop over its head. Sounds simple but it's gotta be one of the most difficult things I've ever seen. First of all, you'r chasing a calf, and those little suckers can run. Secondly, you're throwing a lasso at it, hoping to drop your loop with perfect timing so that it drops over the cow's head. Third, you're doing all this from the back of a galloping horse. I can't think of anything else in sports that has so many moving parts. And these were young kids doing it! Oh, and the winner is whoever can do it the quickest. We're talking seconds here! I watched young teens do it in under 5 seconds.
Xena is very good at this event. She qualified in the first rodeo of the season by being one of the few girls in her age range to catch. Although she got her loop over the ear of one of her calves, it didn't drop over the nose, so it didn't count as a 'catch'. Out of about 150 competitors in both the junior and senior girls, I'd say under 10% of them caught. Now Xena knows how hard she'll have to work to be in that top %.
She also did well in the goat tying. In this event, there's a goat staked to one end of the arena, you have to ride up to it, dismount, grab the goat, flip it on it's back and tie up it's legs. You throw your hands up the second you're done tying and that's your time but if that goat gets up before 6 seconds elapses, you get no time because he wasn't tied properly. Xena's goat stayed down both times.
Between the Saturday morning events and the evening events, we all had several hours off. Megan has a cousin who lives in Pierre. The front of their beautiful home is on a normal, asphalt cul de sac and the back is on a water cul de sac of the Missouri river! A lovely green lawn leads down to a dock where jet skis, paddle boats and a pleasure boat were moored on one side with a big floating dock for the kids to swim off on the other. It was a perfect way to spend the hours between rodeos. We cooled down and relaxed, then headed back to the fair grounds.
Now, Tyler competed in camps, tournaments and teams from early elementary school to college. He had more trophies and medals than you can shake a stick at, especially when you considered that most of those camps and tournaments gave kids awards just for showing up. He threw most of them out when he grew up because they meant very little and only take up space. He kept the important ones, like his State HighSchool Football Championship medal.
This is what these 4-H cowboys were competing for:
This is why there's no trash talk at the rodeo: everyone can see at a glance who's got the goods.
Sunday morning things had cooled down considerably. From 106 on Friday and high 80s on Saturday, it was in the high 70s when we watched Xena's cousin E compete in her final barrel ride. E is 15 and a very talented cowgirl. She ran her pattern in well under 17 seconds.
After 3 days in the heat and dust, Jay and I should sleep very well this week. It was fun, exciting and exhausting and I'm looking forward to the kids' local rodeo circuit which they run in the fall. A half hour drive and home to my own bed is a lot easier but I have to admit: the whole State Finals thing was worth doing and I hope we do it again. It was really something.