Different kind of blog post for me… mostly pictures, not many words. Mainly because that was my entire reason for attending! Except for checking out the beer tent at the town dance last night. Can’t say that went too well… For 27 years I enjoyed going to those kind of things with Tricia, who enjoyed dancing so much… mostly I just like an excuse to have a few beers 🙂 As I arrived at the beer / band tent I realized I really didn’t want to be there… no interest in people, crowds, dancing, pretty much the entire scene. Kind of like Charley Brown, I immediately just started missing my dog… had one beer and hightailed it for home to drink beer with Big Dog. He’s not much of a drinker, but at least he likes my sorry company 🙂

Other than that, I had no plans to go to the rodeo, always feel kind of sorry for the animals, especially the little steers who really don’t want to be roped and thrown to the ground 😦 But due to the smoke from all the fires and some clouds, I can’t even see the mountains, and the wildlife is pretty spooked from all the unusual activity around the

fairgrounds so there is nothing to shoot this weekend plus the whole thing was going on only about a block from my house! The deer have all fled and the poor foxes are running around in the daytime wondering what to do since they can’t get to their dens or their normal hunting grounds. This is the first time in the entire year that I have lived here that anyone has used the fairgrounds so me and all the wild critters are quite used to having it all to ourselves in peace.

And all the activity was also driving Big Dog crazy so I couldn’t leave him outside, making the whole weekend an entire uproar. Plus I don’t seem to have anything to eat or drink here at the house today and a brat and a beer on a hot day at an outdoor event sounded pretty darn good 🙂

So I thought, what the heck I might as well go over and try a different kind of photography. Fortunately I got in for half price since I am an Air Force Veteran, which I thought was pretty cool 🙂 In addition, one of the food vendors was also buying lunch for all the Fort Carson guys who were in attendance, which I also thought was pretty cool 🙂

Steer roping was the first event that I was able to see, and it turned out pretty well for the steers.

A couple of them were too fast for the horses and one just refused to cooperate all together. When the horses bolted out of the gate the steer ran a few feet and slammed on the brakes. The riders were half way into the arena before they even had time to think about it 🙂

There were only a couple of bucking bronc riders for some reason and my shots of that didn’t turn out to be very dramatic so I didn’t bother to process any as of yet. The synchronized riders were fun as were the barrel racers, and I got a couple of nice shots of them. Would have to say the bulls were the stars of the show as they went undefeated. Not one rider was able to complete an eight second ride and I got some pretty cool shots of that event, at least I think so 🙂

It’s all over now, the livestock trucks have all hit the road and Big Dog is back outside enjoying the sunshine while I enjoy the peace and quiet that I am accustomed to 🙂 Hope you all enjoy the pictures of our little rodeo here at 10,000 feet of elevation, high in the Colorado Rockies 🙂