Row-Diddy-O
A fine way to spend a Saturday afternoon – an Arizona rodeo. Took this a long time ago … someplace in southern Arizona outside Tucson. The horse and calf have certainly passed on; maybe the cowboy as well. Long time ago.
I haven’t been to a rodeo in a long time; Mrs DT’s never been. I would guess “local” ones are still held, but when I see them advertised, it seems like more like a commercialized “happening”. Someone saw something fun and decided to make money from it – then boosted it to make more money. Oh, well …
Look at the crowd in this one – sitting on dirt berms just below the parking lot … though it was a formal and sponsored event (“Arizona Feeds”) rather than the local ranch hands showing their stuff in a stray field. May not have even required tickets.
I’ve been to 1 row-day-oh.
In Bamberg Germany of all places.
When I was in the army in 1976.
From what I recall it was a good time.
Massive drinking was involved.
No photo for me.
Have the photo now. Don’t know if it’s something you did, DT, or if
it’s because I upgraded my computer after much erasure. Just hope
I didn’t erase anything important.😕
I did a little bit of riding in my youth. Not much. Just a little on the week-ends at the local horseback riding stable in exchange for mucking out stables and such when my mother worked summers at the Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters, Wisconsin. Have you ever heard of that place? JohnDillinger & his gang hung out there one week-end and the FBI came after them. The bullet holes were still in the windows.
Anyhow, the second summer, the people at the stable made me a guide. I was 14 years old – a total amateur taking 5-7 never-having-ridden-before adults out on the trail! It’s a miracle we never had a fatal disaster.
Nope – wasn’t anything I did.
In high school, had a friend that had 4 horses. I’d take care of them when they weren’t home. One day Sonny – stood 17½ hands tall – broke down the door to the hayloft and got himself stuck on the barn’s 2nd floor. Had to dope him up and use a crane to get him down.
“Once upon a time, poor people had horses, rich people had cars. Now poor people have cars, rich people have horses”
We frequently take the back road through Florence* on our way to Tucson to see the grandkids. That drive takes us past a rodeo grounds on the south side of Florence.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/yGVL6CnyiiWefVda6?g_st=ac
Its a whole lotta nothing which makes it perfect for it’s use. If we’re driving past on a weekend, it isn’t unusual to see the place packed with trucks, trailers and those portable fences they set up for the horses. Far-be-it from me to question what others do with their time and money, but horses seem to be more of a lifestyle than a hobby.
* Florence is a prison town. The state runs a minimum security prison there; there’s a privately run prison; and the feds run an immigration detention center there. The Hell’s Angels used to drive past in January on a Prison Run….bikes stretching more than a mile….but that has dwindled. The internet tells me that they had a Run in 2025, but it was just a small number of bikes and there hasn’t been one yet this year.
https://youtu.be/A944y071pnY?si=0or7r-nwnAo79GzB