You can take the boy from the ranch but not the ranch from the boy. I'm back home in Alberta, Canada for the holidays and having eaten and opened presents, and with the Lakers/Celtics game a few hours away, there's not much else to do on the ranch. My dad was a pro bull and bronc rider in his day and even in his early 60's he's still competitively team roping (and winning money). In team roping there are two riders who ride after a steer. One rider ropes the steers head, the "header", while the other rider ropes the steer's legs, the "heeler". My dad is a heeler and In our barn he has a his practice setup of a mechanical steer and a hay bale "horse" set up, complete with saddle. The mechanical steer's legs move in a running motion and the steer's head and horns also flex to simulate an actual steer.
As a kid, my dad taught my two brothers and I how to rope. He, being a heeler, taught us all how to rope as a headers so we would one day be able to team rope with him. I have roped throughout the years, but not on his "horse" contraption and not with his mechanical steer. So, after we had gone out and fed the cows, I decided to give the practice steer a shot. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I caught the steer 7 of my first 10 attempts. My dad was impressed and said with some riding practice I'd be good! It was good fun and a good arm and shoulder workout! Enjoy the pictures, any of you surprised over my ranch background?
*P.S. Upon further inspection I apologize for the look on my face in the pictures...I'm trying to decide if I'm just super excited or if I really am a zombie...I'm leaning towards the zombie....
5 comments:
maybe you should change your profession... yeeeee hawwwww. Merry Christmas friend. I'm freezing my butt off up here too. Nothing beats being home though.
Hahahaha...this may be true! The big money's in Vegas too!! I agree, there's nowhere like home! What have you been up to in the minus 15 degree weather? : )
Yes, I agree... You should totally change your profession, Vegas wouldn't be a bad thing either. ;)
You don't look like a Zombie at all, just like you are having tons of fun! Great Job Dad for being such a great sport-Is that him in the other photos I can't really see the face? I LOVE your ranch background... not surprised at all.
you definitely need to work out those wimpy arms! hahaha!
Haha, I'll give you this one and say it was just concentration! It looks like it was fun! I've always wanted to try, but whenever I have the rope has been too short. Plus, having someone pretend to be a steer surprisingly doesn't have that many volunteers.
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