Rodeo Houston

This year Jonathan and I were lucky enough to be invited to the Houston Rodeo by our dear friend Colleen! If you've never been to the Rodeo I highly recommend it. We decided to go straight from work so we could take the lightrail and not have to worry about parking. I love working in downtown! We got there around 6 so we had a little time to walk around the Livestock Show. I love seeing all the animals. We saw baby pigs, lamb, and chicks! Plus, I pet a pig and Colleen pet a steer! By the way, don't be like us make the mistake of calling a steer a cow even though look almost exactly the same. We got a little lecture on steer when we asked if we could pet their cow.

This lamb was born that morning!

Piglets!

Colleen and Christine petting a cow. At least I think it's a cow...

Colleen getting a lesson on steer

Petting the steer!

After all the animal petting we quickly washed our hands and then went to get BBQ! It was crazy crowded but of course I always love being around tons of people. After food we headed to the Rodeo! Just one little disclaimer, I really do like going to the rodeo. However, I'm always quite terrified that someone's going to get trampled by a bull and I'm usually rooting for the animals to get away when the cowboys are trying to tie them up. I know, that's not really the point of the rodeo, but what did the animals ever do to them? My favorite events are the horse races, the calf scramble, and the mutton busting! The calf scramble is where kids have to run around, catch a calf, tie a harness around it's head, and bring it to the center of the stadium floor. If they do that successfully then they get to keep the calf and raise it. For most of them, it's their first chance to raise their own animal so they're pretty invested in getting themselves a calf. The mutton busting is where kids averaging around the age of 6 have to hang on and ride a mutton/lamb and whoever hangs on the longest gets a prize. It's really adorable to watch. The winner of the competition really went above and beyond. He hung on until the mutton ran the entire distance across the race area and even as the lamb ran into the fence. The mutton then turned and kept running and the boy was still hanging on even though he was being dragged on the ground! That's determination! By the way, all the kids were heavily padded so no one was hurt or anything. Every kid was smiling afterwards so they had fun!

Tying up animals :-(

Chuck wagon races! If you notice, there's a Chevron one.

More tying up animals....

 

See I'm having fun!

So are Colleen and Christine!


After that was the big concert! We got to see Jake Owens. I knew close to nothing about this singer but he ended up being great! He walked around the entire floor of the stadium shaking everyone's hands, taking pictures with the audience using fans' cameras, and climbing up into the audience. He's quite the multitasker because he doing all this while singing at the same time lol.

He also wore a shirt that said Texas. I think he was trying to suck up a little lol.

The stage is pretty cool too because it rotates and you can even see through the screen when the stage is facing away from you. So to sum up, if you haven't been to the rodeo, go! It's like stepping into a totally different world where people ride bulls for a living and raise their own cattle. It's definitely fun to see for this city girl.

-Chelsey