Well this month it’s been a pretty busy one; weird considering July is supposed to be the busiest rodeo month. But for me it’s October, I’ve had an event every weekend!
This past weekend was the California Circuit finals. For the non rodeo esque, the PRCA (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association) divides the nation up into 12 circuits. California is so big that it has its own circuit, so I’m headed down south again for our circuit finals/state finals.
I left SF early with every intention of going to cheer on some of my friends who were competing for Miss Rodeo California and reminisce about the fact that sadly I’m too old to compete myself.
And it’s pretty lucky I left when I did, because California experienced a little wet weather.
As soon as I made it down south we were hit by flooding of the two major arteries in and out of Southern California/LA. Luckily I was on the SoCal side of the flooding, otherwise I would have been stuck in mud for hours if not days! Because of all this I didn’t make it into the rodeo grounds until Saturday morning.But I was able to be there for the coronation of Rachel the 2016 Miss Rodeo California. Those who may not remember Rachel was the doll who stepped up and saved my butt at Norco when Mouse came up lame and let me use Bentley to finish the rodeo.
Because of the rain, one of the biggest rarities in rodeo happened, a performance was cancelled! I know what you’re thinking, those Cowboys and Cowgirls can’t handle a little moisture?
Well trust me we would have if there had been stock to use!
Unfortunately some of the animal athletes (bulls and bucking horses) on their way to the rodeo got stuck on the other side of the mudslide. They almost made it in time, but in the interest of safety our committee chose to cancel Friday’s performance.
But we were back at it Saturday morning! In a rodeo you generally have a main performance and slack (or the Cowboys that don’t fit into a performance). But because everyone has qualified to be there at the finals all the stops are pulled out; instead each day had two public performances.
For the queens this means we are working ALOT. Miss Mouse ended up carrying a flag about 15 times! We even had the opportunity to carry our rodeo flags to help educate the public about California’s 35 different rodeos.
My girl was perfect as always and on Sunday we had to skip a performance because it was time to hit the road and head back up north.
The end of October means one thing, that is the Grand National! So now we are back in San Francisco and getting ready for the one that started it all. Stay tuned to hear more about this year’s Grand National adventures.
