Footloose Footnotes: Colorado. Bits and Pieces

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Colorado. Bits and Pieces

Colorado Skies

Heading Home. Colby, KS. 7/27/2013 I've lifted anchor and set sail for home. It's been a great couple of weeks in the Rockies, but there are things to be done on the home front, and I must go, however reluctantly. I love it out here..but I love it back there. What's to do?

There are leftovers in my camera files. They're too good to let go..so here's where we'll put them.

Larry Guss and I "lit out early" yesterday to look for pictures, ending the day at Steamboat Springs' regular Friday night rodeo. Great day.

Looking for a big-eared deer? I've got one.

This one was foraging when we drove by..I don't know if it was curious or confident. Whatever..it posed nicely and then moved off into the underbrush.

Hunting animals with a camera is pretty easy out here if you don't get too close (never good with a bear or mountain cat, anyway)..I use a camera with a 300 mm lens, set to shoot about 4 pictures a second. You can stand your distance and get your shot and everybody..including the deer..is happy.

I call this one "The Water Snake." The cattle stay close to water--in this case, a winding creek. Fun.

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Steamboat's Rodeo arena.

If you don't live out here, you might not understand what a big sport Rodeo is. More precisely, it is part of the social fabric and ranch kids start riding horses before they get on bicycles. Rodeo covers many of the working cowboy's skills--roping, riding and wrestling (steers). Girls start practicing barrel racing at a very young age. It is the one Rodeo event that is almost exclusively female.

It takes a real rider to make those tight turns..and a smart horse, too.

Try that on your Harley.

As I said, they start young. In some of the Junior events, there were riders as young as six. This little girl got a ride in an early competition with the help of an older sister..but she made the circuit. Notice how the horses are tethered together.

Her time was a little over a minute. But that's a start.

Then the big guys took over in the evening show. I'm referring, of course, to the Bulls and the Broncs. Steamboat's rodeo is a combination of local riders and the pros, who come through town on the rodeo circuit. It's held every weekend during the summer.

Ouch.

Man overboard.

Git'im!! Now, this is complicated. The guy who threw the first rope has to get the calf around the neck (the horns and neck are protected by a helmet) and the guy on the other horse has to rope it around its hind leg or legs. I don't know how it's done, but it doesn't always work. Just sayin'.