Rex Ranch Rodeo

Tonight Jason and I are doing a little packing while we watch the NFR. I used to love watching rodeo, but it isn't as fun anymore. Maybe because I get to watch my own rodeo any time around here.

Jason is in the saddle bronc event when he gets on Roxy and she doesn't want to be ridden. She gets to bucking and he gets thrown. I don't start laughing until after he gets up (when I know he's alright).

Then there's the wild cow milking. In the spring after a calf has to be pulled, the cow has to be milked and the calf tubed with the colostrum. The cow is in a head catch, but she will still kick when she is being milked (and then there's the manure, blood and afterbirth flying around).

Roping events include roping cows and calves when they need to be doctored. But instead of trying to catch them within an arena, they have hundreds of acres to run. In this event it's easiest to chase the cow until she's too tired to run anymore and then rope her. In the spring at the brandings there's lots of calf roping and calf throwing\wrestling.

My personal favorite is calf tagging. Within hours of a calf's birth, it needs to be tagged, weighed, etc. If you wait to long to do this, the calf has a little more energy and a greater ability to escape when you're trying to get its vitals. So you have to catch the calf, throw and hold it down, get its weight, tag it and do all this with its mother breathing down your neck.

So even though we aren't in Las Vegas at the Thomas and Mack Center, our spectators still enjoy the action here at the Rex Ranch Rodeo.