Rodeo games consisted on Pole Bending, Key Hole Races, Barrel Racing and another game with a name that escapes me it was that memorable involving moving a stick from one bucket to another and racing back across the finish line. I will apologise ahead of time about the quality of the pictures in the arena. My camera just didn't like the lighting in there as well and didn't adjust as I had hoped.
The first picture is of two cowgirl wranglers just having fun waiting for us to mount up and start. As one might have predicted by the dates on the calendar. The season at the ranch was winding down. Many of the young wranglers are just hired for the season and the season was drawing to an end. There was a bittersweet sense of goodbye flowing through some of the kids. Several were scheduled to leave Saturday or Sunday. Though there was still Photographers Week and another Cow Girl Up week, the numbers for the specialty weeks are small compared to the much larger guest numbers that come through during the summer.
Part of the week that I enjoyed as much as the horses was listening to the stories from the young wranglers...where they grew up, how the ended up in MT working on a Guest Ranch, some of the other places and experiences that they have had, where they plan to head off to next. I remember looking at college catalogues and wondering about University of WY or MT.... Think about how different one's life could be by small choices. I worked a summer camps in New Hampshire, initially as the Riding Instructor. I passed on the camp in El Paso out in TX.....
Most of the kids had grown up on a farm. Apparently dairy farms with horses count. A couple had finished college. (Remember that rodeo scholarship? That college was in Tennessee....just saying Mitch!) One very talented young lady was heading off to the U of M, and she isn't talking Michigan. One had his certificate as an EMT. Several had actually left their personal horses behind to come up to work.
Anyway, all cowgirls like to have fun.
#2 on handsome Cash.
Think back on how carefully you may have picked out your last pair of boots. These are the working boots of a real cowgirl. You can tell they really are pink under all that corral muck....
All of us spent the morning practicing our rodeo games by taking turns on the horses, five at a time. In the afternoon which turned out to not look too rainy we got to chose one last trail ride around a lake and open woods on some near by property none of us had ridden on. Five of us stayed back for the choice of working more in the arena. The women on the ride did say the country side was beautiful. Those of us in the arena voted to practice the barrel racing. The young wrangler said she would coach us on the skills necessary to make a good run. She and her horse compete in Barrel Racing at Rodeos. She was so much fun and encouraging. She had a passion for her sport and the love of the activity and enthusiasm flowed through her to us. We never got to any of the other games and we stayed in the area longer than the Head Wrangler had told us we would when she was trying to downplay the arena activities. Those of us that stayed knew that we would be much more active on the horses in the arena than out on the trail ride. Several of us may still have been hesitant circling the first two barrels at a trot, but we did know how to clear the last barrel and bring'm on home at a canter....
Garrett.
#11 and Garrett another one of those handsome cowboys.
And #7....
It was Friday so most of the horses were let out into the larger pasture for the weekend. It was a great improvement from the mud lot.
The sides were on the wedding tent, waiting for the 170 guest to arrive on Saturday. They will need those heaters and rain is predicted....
*8 didn't like her hat picture from last night so she requested a "do-over."
Several of us were planning a trip into town Friday night. #1 and #8 had a special bar in mind and those friends of mine that took me around Nashville one night know that I have an interest in bars just not much experience. I missed a lot in my youth... We didn't even have to miss the singing cowboy. He came at 7 pm while the night was still young. I was one of the designated drivers for town. I discovered that young people don't know how to dress for "80's night". I mean Peace Signs? And the music was too loud and I was waiting for someone to seizure because of the strobe lights but then I'm old....With flashing lights anyone can look good dancing. I found out you can gamble in the back rooms of bars in MT. That the singing cowboy from earlier on the ranch takes off his wedding ring when he hits the bars later on Friday night. I drove the early car/group, we were back at the ranch by 11:30. But even the late owls all made it up in time to catch their early drives to the airport.
I tried to upload the video without success. My learning curve need further expanding. Just hum a few bars of John Denver's Country Roads....
There was audience participation mostly from staff who knew the song along with #1, our Princess in the red pants who was/is a quick study.
You don't need to hear about the exciting airplane rides to Minneapolis and then back to Dayton....just linger here by the fire and think of the smell of leather, quiet nickering of horses and the big sky over Montana....
