Yeee - Haw!

This was something I have been waiting for for a long time! A few months ago, T's brother Pete, signed the both of them up for an event at the Days of '47 rodeo at the Delta Center, or as what they now call it, the Energy Solutions center. Now, if any of you know me, you have to know that I ABSOLUTELY love rodeos! I love everything about them: the excitement, the feeling in the air, the unpredictability of the animals, the talent that goes into working with those animals, and last but not least, the cute cowboys.

When T told me they were going to do this, I was so excited, because now, my husband wasn't only my cute husband. He was going to be my cute cowboy. Plus, the Delta Center is HUGE! I mean, that's where the Jazz play!

I know I sound a little overexcited, but you have to know, I REALLY love rodeos. T and Pete were entered in the Wild Cow Milking event. This is where one person is on a horse (roper), and one is on the ground (mugger). The idea is for one of them to rope a wild cow, one to basically wrestle it into submission, and one to milk just enough to be able to pour and give to the judges. All the teams are out there at once, and whoever gets to the judge first with their milk, wins. The winners receive a very nice, very LARGE belt buckle. According to T, the winner basically receives pride. T was the mugger.

We started our journey in and around Logan. Pete borrowed a horse from a guy in his ward, named Howard. He seemed like a good, very big, sturdy horse. Pete loaded him in the horse trailer, also borrowed from T's dad. We got to Salt Lake, and everyone's nerves took over, including mine. I got into the arena with Pete's kids and we waited.

Their event was third, so we didn't have to wait for very long. The event started, there are about 5 teams all together, everyone went crazy scrambling around to rope a cow. At one point, one of the ropers got bucked off of his horse! Then, that same horse got tangled with one of the cows. Both animals were going berzerk. Fortunately for T and Pete, all the other teams were involved in this fiasco, and those two were no where near any of it.

During all of this, Pete roped a cow! T started running towards it, and boy, was it wild. T finally got to it, and was trying to hold it. Meanwhile, Pete jumped off the horse, and was running toward the cow.

It was at this time the cow went crazy! He started throwing its head and jerking around. It was too much for T because the cow just ran away, with T holding firmly to the rope attached to the cow's neck. T got dragged clear from one end of the arena to the other. Everyone in the audience was like, 'Whoa!' T was up on the big screen and everything. Finally, Pete caught up and somehow milked that cow. He ran towards the judges, and not 10 seconds earlier, someone else had gone to the judges with their milk.

I didn't even know what was going on until the judges annouced the winner. From where I was T and Pete had won. Since they were a close second, they were on the big screen so much! T was definately the star of the rodeo, everyone was talking about how he was dragged. Plus, T did a get a little souvenir. He wasn't wearing any gloves, so his hands look like this.

This is from the rope burn he got horribly. It still hurts him badly and he can barely move. Thankfully, it was his left hand.

T is on the ground in the green shirt, and Pete is on the horse in a dark blue shirt.