Sounds like bull to me...

My husband is a rodeo freak. Wait...that didn't sound right. He's all about some rodeo. He used to bullride, and he'd do it again today if it wouldn't make my heart stop a hundred times over. So naturally, when he found out that a nearby county fair was having a Junior Rodeo, he talked our 3 1/2 year old son into participating in it. Little Boy was more than thrilled to be a part of it.



Now, understand , there are no live animals in this jr. rodeo. The barrel horse racing was done on stick horses, the cows for the cow-milking were wooden cut-outs, and the bull was a plastic barrel with a plastic bull's head on the front of it and was suspended by four ropes (two in front, two in back) from two overhead ceiling beams. My son was in the 5 & Under group. I wish I had a picture of him to put on here, because he surely was cute in his little blue jeans, work boots and "Ride 'Em Cowboy" shirt.



He participated in the stick horse barrel racing and (of course) in the bullriding. You should have seen the big grin on his face during the barrel race--it made this mother's heart melt. As far as the bullriding...well, dummy me, in my eagerness to watch my son participate, had signed him up to be the first rider. What I was thinking, I don't know, because now he couldn't watch to get an idea of how, exactly, it was supposed to be done. On top of that, we had asked the lady in charge of the rodeo event if the smaller kids were allowed to hang on with both hands instead of just one, and she was like "Oh yeah, it's no big deal, that's fine." Well, turns out, it wasn't fine. Apparently the teens that were judging the event didn't get the memo. My boy got dinged on points for doing what we were told he would be fine doing. So, he didn't win, but he did obviously have a good time, which was totally worth the 2 1/2 hours we sat in the humid, Southern evening air. Oh--you wanna know who won his age group? The winner was the little girl whose daddy ran the fair's mechanical bull. Hmmmm....



Anyway, perceived unfairness aside, we had a good night. It was a good family outing. It was great to see my boy in action. I just hope I handle it so well when he climbs onto the live animal for the first time...we'll not rush that along. :)