We took our Lucky Dragon to participate in a rodeo. This is something that we all did growing up and luckily Uncle Beau-D and cousins have kept up the tradition. Tau'aho was SO excited to participate!
Beau-D had him watch as he led Kaleia around the barrels on the new (but old in age) pony they had bought--Pumkin. Then it was his turn! Uncle Larry came by and gave him instructions to hold onto the horse by squeezing his legs. Beau-D ran him around the barrels, much to Tau'aho's surprise, he liked it. Beau-D started to run at the end to make Pumpkin go faster and Pumpkin did a few bucks in the air. Later, as we talked about it Beau-D surmised the people that had Pumpkin before him only had slow meandering walks with their kids on her. Lucky Dragon, on the other hand, was quite animated about it. He told me that he "didn't get bucked off because he was squeezing his legs!" I was shocked by that because I didn't think he was really listening to Larry with all the distractions of a rodeo going on. I asked him if he rode the bucking horse like CoBurn and he quickly, and very seriously, responded, "No, I'm not as good as CoBurn." HAHA.
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| Best Friends---sometimes best frenemies |
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| Ride'em cowboy! (or faux-cowboy anyway) |
The next day he woke up and I asked him if he was going to ride Pumpkin in the next rodeo and he said, "No, I will ride Buckstripe." Now Buckstripe has been in the family for years and many of us rodeoed on her when we were younger. I was surprised Tau'aho knew her name and was sure he was going to ride her. Luckily, Beau-D even brought her to the rodeo.
The kids 'roped the calf' an activity that Lucky Dragon absolutely refused to participate in and would hide behind his mum's leg when they called his name. The other kids had fun though.
The next event was untying a ribbon on the goat's tail. To do this the child rides the horse in, jumps off the horse, runs to the goat and unties the ribbon on its tail. We sat and watched, with Buckstripe ready, as all of the other children did it. He decided, maybe because his best friend/cousin went into a tantrum when she went out (because her boot had fallen off and he dad had put her in the dirt with only her socks on) but I was not sure.
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| Mad and bootless... |
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| Putting on the boot...still mad |
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| Now embarrassed |
When they called his name I told him it was time to go and he started to refuse and would not give me the truck he had been playing in the dirt together. So screaming Dragon and all, I put him up in the saddle and took off running (there was no Lady Hiva for him to hide behind this time. I had conveniently staged her at the other end of the arena to 'take photos'). His protests and cries quickly turned into smiles and cheers of "go faster!" as he realized he liked it. When we arrived at the goat I asked him if he was going to pull the ribbon off and he said he was and, to my surprise, he jumped off and ran up to the goat to pull the ribbon off. (Truck in hand and all) Although he did do it with two fingers as if he was pulling off a stinky or disgusting piece of cloth and quickly dropped it. That night as we were driving in the car he told me, "Daddy, I pulled that orange ribbon off that goat's muli!" ("butt" in Tongan) And started to laugh hysterically.
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| He was yelling at me |
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| Task complete, truck in hand and all |
The last event he did was barrels. Again, he was unsure about going to start, but as we began he liked it. Instead of just going around the barrels in a clover pattern as you are supposed to he want to "boom the barrels and knock them down!" Haha. My job was to run along side Buckstripe and try to keep her from taking off at a full run as she normally would do.
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| Daddy, let's knock it over |
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| Showing off the money they "won" at the rodeo |
It was fun to watch everyone participate. Watching my generation, with their kids so much older than Lucky Dragon, help their children learn how much to enjoy the sport we all grew up doing. Who would have known that years ago we, who competed against each other, would be there cheering on our kids doing the same thing? It was even fun for our city boy who was wearing lime green tennis shoes and a t-shirt and his dad that was dressed similar--hehe
And no trip is complete without a trip into the mountains--and a chance to get into that water!
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