More rodeo

Donna's daughter and son-in-law weren't able to come to the rodeo at the NW Montana Fair on Saturday so Donna and I used their tickets instead of letting them go to waste.

Saturday night's rodeo was the finals of three nights of rodeo action.  This rodeo was longer at about an hour.  A few more competitors in each category.  

Bucking bronco rider

 
Mainly the reason the rodeo was longer were the Indian Relay races.  Instead of just one Indian Relay race there were two of them.  There were also two bareback riding races - one for the men and one for the women.

The horses were wild and high spirited in all the Indian races. Because the riders were riding bare-back the riders often were holding on for dear life and some riders fell off.  Those horses kept running the race without them.

The Indian relay team is four people:

1. The rider
2. the person who grabs the incoming horse as the rider gets off,
3. the person who holds the second horse and positions it for the rider to jump on it, then catches the horse when the rider comes in again after circling the track,
4. the person who holds the third horse and positions it for the rider to jump on it.

Even after the horse has been ridden it remains in the team's 'staging' area while the race is going on.   As all the teams' staging areas are near each other along the fence the transfers can be tricky as horses are milling around.  The rider has to find his team and next horse while avoiding the other teams and horses.  He has to jump off his horse and both feet must touch the ground before he jumps onto the next horse.


The first Indian relay race must have been the "B" team as the riders often had trouble making a smooth transfer between the horses.  One guy was drug around by his horse as his foot was caught in the stirrup.   Other riders hopped and hopped and hopped before mounting their horses who were taking off to join the other horses racing.

The "A" team of riders were better in the transfers.  Only one rider's horse got away from him.  The winning rider jumped off his horse on the second transfer, made one or two hops across the ground and jumped high on a rearing horse and held on the horse's neck as it came down on all four feet and took off at breakneck speed.  With such a smooth and quick transfer, and a fast horse, no one could catch him.

I think the Indian riders were the best part of the rodeo.


The starts are chaotic.   The horses mill around as they won't keep still.  The starter (holding the orange flag in the photo) tries to start the race when the horses are close to one another.  That doesn't mean the horses are all facing the right direction.

And they're off!

One of the transfers for the "pink" team coming in.

The "pink" team rider leaving after he made the transfer to a new horse.

The winner of the "A" team race.

Here is a 29 second video during one of the Indian relay races: https://youtu.be/PytDdtL_mUc

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