Kvelve's Comments: Time to saddle up

Yeeee-haaaaw! It’s time, once again, for rodeo season. 

As a guy who loves most sports, including football, none gets my inner cowboy going more than rodeo. 

And beginning this weekend, the rodeo season, which actually occurs all year these days, gets underway locally for the summer with the arrival of Homesteader Days in Hot Springs. 

Oh, as most of you know, I get pretty revved up about the first football game of the year also, including the pre-season, meaningless contests of late summer. 

But when I see the horseback riders circle the arena with the American flag, the state flag and other banners of what is good about this country go riding by to start the festivities, what can I say? 

For the most part, and one that is very refreshing to me, the rodeo is not a political show. There is a big difference in my humble opinion between political and patriotic displays. 

And when they swing open the first gate on the bucking chutes and a large, spirited beast with a cowboy or cowgirl on its back, I’m on my feet. 

Hootin’ and hollerin’ out of respect for good, family entertainment by some of the toughest hombres on the planet. 

I’m sure I’ve relayed the story many times, some may say ad nauseum, about my one-time encounter with a “tourist stock” bull at a jackpot rodeo in Cody.  That was a Coors-fueled act of youth that lasted about six seconds and served as a wake-up call to this then-young man’s misplaced bravado. 

What was worse, after landing in the dirt several yards beyond the horns of that critter, I realized I had no time to lay there and hurt, there was a wild, muscle-bound animal stomping around the arena wildly, looking for me so it could finish me off. 

Thank God for the rodeo clowns, or as they are rightfully referred to these days as “bullfighters”. 

My “buddies” of course, were rolling on the ground (on the safe side of the arena fence, I might add) laughing at what they had just witnessed.  I was airborne with what they described for years to come as the most startled look they have ever seen on the face of a human being. 

To be a rodeo guy or gal, you have to be tough.  Some might say crazy too, but I prefer to think of it as a desire to face and overcome the ultimate challenge. 

It’s not just bull riders or bronc-busters that are high energy during an event that is almost non-stop. Think about riding a galloping horse out of the chute while twirling a lasso over your head as you attempt to rope and tackle a side of beef on the hoof that is running as fast as it can to thwart your attempt. 

Or one of my favorite events during a rodeo, jumping off a speeding horse onto the back of a rampaging steer, grabbing it by the horns and snout and throwing it to the ground.  They call that steer wrestling. 

I call it controlled chaos. 

In between the action on the arena floor, there are the corny jokes and goofy actions of the clowns. Comedians in cowboy boots. 

And if it's horsemanship you seek, watch the barrel racers as they guide their amazing animals around an obstacle course at break-neck speed. 

This is what family fun is all about, something for everyone. 

As Willie Nelson once crooned, “my heroes have always been cowboys...”