B & D Land and Livestock Rodeo

The first annual B & D Land and Livestock Rodeo was held this past Saturday at my parents ranch. This is an idea my dad has been working on for a while and had finally come to fruition. There was a lot of preparation that went into making everything happen. The events started off with an opening ceremonies with a real live rodeo princess dressed in lots of pink and rhinestones. Marty, Alex's wife held an american flag and led the girls on horses on a lap around the arena. Marty beautifully sang the Star Spangled Banner in her amazing opera voice. The first event was a hay dig. Chris and I had hidden candy and treats in a large pile of hay and the kids then had to dig through the hay to find the treasures. The next event was chasing chickens - which kind of went haywire when the chickens made it out of the man-made circle and hid inbetween the hay bales. One of the funnest events was the showdown at high noon. Everyone lined up in two long lines armed with squirt guns. At the word everyone opened fire. It was great to see adults and kids unload on each other. There was no mercy.

The more traditional rodeo events included barrel racing, cutting and pole bending. Whoever wanted could take a chance at any event. There were some easy riding horses for the little kids to sit on and take a nice stroll around the arena.

We ate lots of good food to refuel us for the big greased pig chase. The task was to catch the pig and put an outfit on it. After the pigs were tired out, someone decided to nab one of the goats and put a purple tutu on it (hopefully pictures to come).

We found a large group of rodeo princess who each had the wonderful talent of being to talk to animals. Before the girls could get their rodeo princess crown that had to make their best animal noise. However, the Rodeo Queen award went to my mother who had planned and put a lot of work into making everything happen. Also, it was her birthday the next day and we wanted to make sure everyone new.


This was my rodeo debut. I did the barrel race and finished by knocking over the last barrel. I think I had the slowest horse available because no matter now hard I kicked I couldn't get the horse to move much faster. I wasn't the slowest one, though.


Rich, Heather and Tyler all dressed up for the rodeo. Tyler looks great in his baby-sized cowboy hat.


My dad and Jacob showing off his cow cutting skills. Dallas, Rich, Jeff and a few others took their turn at cutting. Marty, who has a history in rodeos was quite good at cutting and great to watch.


Chris being great at spectating. It was a rather warm day and great for watching the rodeo happen.