I spent the morning at a team roping contest in Wickenburg. Everyone seemed to have a good time except the cows

Only one pic to click so there's no chance of a sprained clicking finger.

This is how it starts, one Cowboy, or in this case Cowgirl... She's the one without the beard, throws a loop over the steers horns, and the other cowboy lassos both back feet, which brings the steer to a screeching halt which is the whole idea. And the folks that can do this the quickest wins the contest.

No more pictures unfortunately, my Internet is so slow that picture took 22 minutes to upload. And the Internet comes and goes so it may quit halfway through loading a picture. It seems like ever since the weather went bad, so did my Internet.

I went to a team roping event at one of the roping arenas in town and had a good time watching the Cowboys do their thing. If you don't already know, team roping is where the steer gets a head start out of the gate, and then two Cowboys chase him down, one ropes his head, that Cowboys called the Header, and the other ropes both hind legs, and he's called a Heeler, which immobilizes the steer and stops the timer. In these Cowboys, and Cowgirls were doing all that in just about nine seconds.

Most of the rodeo sports are not things that real cowboys do. Real cowboys aren't required to ride bulls, they do that just for fun, and to show off. But roping, either by yourself or with someone else, is a skill that Cowboys have to have because they do it all day long. Every time they have to doctor a sick cow out in the field that cow has to be held down so it won't hurt itself or the Cowboys, and team roping is the way the cow is immobilized so they can give them a shot, or stitch up a wound.


It's really amazing to watch the skills and the teamwork it takes not only with the two Cowboys but with the Cowboys and their horses, a good roping horse is worth a lot of money because there's a lot of money to be made in this team roping sport. The winner of these things can get several thousand dollars in prize money, which is not bad for one mornings work. But most of these folks do it because they love it and the sport puts them around the things that they love the most, which appears to be, their families, horses, and the ranching way of life.


                                          theboondork