I tried something new again this week! Believe it or not, but I’ve lived in South Dakota for a majority of my life and I’ve never been to a rodeo before. I even lived a mile away from the rodeo grounds when I was little and all through high school – but it took me 30 years to make it there!
Dan told me earlier this week the rodeo was in town this weekend and asked me if I wanted to go. Like I said, I’ve never been before, so didn’t know all what to expect, but I happily agreed. I was a little worried it was going to be one giant mud puddle after all the rain we got Thursday night and Friday morning, but it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
We grabbed our lawn chairs and headed to the rodeo grounds with bug spray in hand. Surprisingly, we didn’t need it and we honestly couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful night. Dan being a gentleman, even gave me his sweatshirt when it started getting chilly.
If you’ve never been to a rodeo before, the announcers do a really good job of explaining what all the events are and what the goals behind them are. Dan also explained things to me as we went too. We saw several fun events like steer wrestling, bare back and saddle bronc, breakaway roping and team roping and more.
My favorite to watch had to be a tie between the barrel racing and the tie down roping. Barrel racing just has a lot of high energy around it and the crowd got pretty fired up watching it. The tie down roping was fun to see how the rider and the horse worked together. The goal is to rope a calf and then tie its feet together as fast as you can, and then the calf has to remain on the ground for 6 seconds to make sure they accurately tied them up.
Dan told me to watch the horse when the rider hopped off to tie the calf and it was cool to see the horses know exactly what to do to help hold the rope tight on the calf. There were also several people who missed the calves altogether and it was kind of cute to watch them run off like “haha you missed me!”
The scariest part was the bull riding. There were only about 8 or 9 contestants for the bull riding and only one of them made it the full 8 seconds on the bull. It was definitely a little nerve racking to watch. And one of the bulls put up a heck of a fight trying to get him back in the pen. It was exciting, don’t get me wrong, but I definitely wouldn’t be brave enough to try it!
Overall, it was a lot of fun and I’m glad we went. If you’re wanting to experience it yourself, night #2 starts at 7pm at the Derby downs rodeo grounds tonight! Go on and add something new to your bucket list.
Until next time! 🙂
Megan Nelson