Pendleton Roundup and Rodeo season

[Older Whiskey]

Thought y'all might enjoy my old poetry and newly AI generated photo that looks like me.

Let Er Buck
by Faye

Old cowboys never die, they just run out of luck
So enjoy the ride and Let Er Buck
Come on over and see what we do
It's a low down hoe down, Eastern Oregon Buckeroo

It's rodeo time, out here in the east
Where man steps up, to ride the bucking beast
Cowboys and Indians, do what they like to do
It's low down on the ground, Eastern Oregon Buckeroo

Cowboys, Indians, and Hippies, are looking mighty dapper
Rough stock is unloaded, it's going to be a zapper
Many a Cowboy will soon, be all black and blue
It's low down on the ground, Eastern Oregon Buckeroo

Young ladies rounding barrels, toppling some they graze
Ropers raising dust, lariats swinging in a haze
Smoke rising from the pit, cooking brisket BBQ
It's low down to the ground, Eastern Oregon Buckeroo

Hot dogs, hamburgers, tap beer, all at least a ten dollar bill
Long lines, port a potty waiting, their turn to take a spill
Never mind the dust, the burn of sun, just do what you do
It's low down to the ground, Eastern Oregon Buckeroo

So get out of town, come on down, enjoy what we do
It's a low down, hoe down, Eastern Oregon Buckeroo

 

[webfoot]

Farm Credit gives us free tickets to Pendleton. We have decided not to go this year. We have gone the last 4 or 5 years. But somehow sitting in the nose bleed seats just isn't that appealing. I really enjoy watching good bucking horses buck. But something is missing from that far away. Years of having the best seat in the house must have spoiled me. Too much of a production for me. Every time they crack a gate they crank the music up. I have yet to hear the whistle at the end of the 8 seconds it is drowned out by the music. There are bars at every corner in the stand. All those hard drinking people in the stands doesn't help the atmosphere either. Well and sitting there packed in with 16,000 of my closest friend isn't my thing in life either. So we are thinking finding a little smaller well run rodeo to attend. We can afford to buy our tickets.

 

[Older Whiskey]

Farm Credit gives us free tickets to Pendleton. We have decided not to go this year. We have gone the last 4 or 5 years. But somehow sitting in the nose bleed seats just isn't that appealing. I really enjoy watching good bucking horses buck. But something is missing from that far away. Years of having the best seat in the house must have spoiled me. Too much of a production for me. Every time they crack a gate they crank the music up. I have yet to hear the whistle at the end of the 8 seconds it is drowned out by the music. There are bars at every corner in the stand. All those hard drinking people in the stands doesn't help the atmosphere either. Well and sitting there packed in with 16,000 of my closest friend isn't my thing in life either. So we are thinking finding a little smaller well run rodeo to attend. We can afford to buy our tickets.

Haines was fun, but last I went was 45 years ago. The best was Joseph back when Tallman announced it. Farm City is great if you have box seats. I haven't been since they built the new stadium, but friends love it. Pendleton has always been a crowded mess with lots of party folks. I quit the roundup rodeo years ago and in recent years, don't even go to the parade. It was a good subject for poetry with the Let Er Buck.

Ellensburg used to be great, but I haven't been there in 30 years. Big Loop was fun 50 years ago.

I blame my old age, intolerance for crowds, inability to travel, and bad health more than I do the decline of rodeo haha! Perhaps fans have declined, but I remember a lot of rowdy drunks at every rodeo, back in the day.

 

[Puzzled]

Have never been to Pendleton, but of the events they have, I would liked to have watched the Indian Relay Horse race.
6o Minutes did a show covering some of a race in a bit more detail. It looks a bit hazardous.
Not sure they are using Indian Ponies anymore, sounds like they are shifting to Thoroughbreds.

​

 

[Nicky]

The relay race is fun to watch!

 

[webfoot]

Haines has got to be the slowest run rodeo I have ever been to. We are considering Joesph. Went to the big loop this year. It was good but the wind could blow a hole through you. We went on Saturday. I heard that it snowed Sunday morning to go along with the wind. Miserable cold. Ellensburg is 7 hours away. I have done my share of road going to rodeos already. I am thinking about Homedale Idaho. Where my seats were for years there wasn't any drinking or very much. After the rodeo we drank our share but we were a little busy during the show. If you drink before climbing over the chutes..... well if that is what you do, you might as well just go up in the stands and drink.
The relay is good watching. I wouldn't call it hazardous. What breed are Indian ponies? They pretty much have every breed known to man. If they are in a horse race they have horses which will run.

 

[Faster horses]

We went to the Pendleton Roundup once. It was blazing hot, plus we had seats in the nosebleed section. Best part of it was meeting Mike and Nicky and staying with our friends from SW Montana who moved there to be closer to her kids. I loved the Patriotic theme of the parade. They had a bad problem with the oxen, we found out later the guy that usually worked with them, was let go and the new 'drivers' didn't have a clue what to do when they balked.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Tammy is watching the Cowboy Up Challenge from the Calgary Stampede on Youtube. Faster Horses I bet Jack would enjoy it.

 

[Puzzled]

This will/should take you to the 60 Minute coverage of the Relay race.

 

[webfoot]

Interesting. I didn't have the sound and in the written words it listed off a number of tribes. Blackfeet, Sue......... Hmmm that would the Sioux not the Sue. People who don't know that difference probably shouldn't be reporting on Indian relay races.

Up south of Mt Adams in Washington you can hike into the Indian race track. It is worn into the ground from years of horse races that happened there. This an area where the Yakima tribe camped while harvesting the abundant blue berries which grew there. It is beside a portion of the Cascade Crest trail.

 

[Older Whiskey]

@webfoot The tragic misspelling of Sioux, was a computer thing, not the reporters doing, however I get irritated with the woke folks, like the video narrator, that use Native American instead of Indian which the tribes use themselves when many tribes are involved. It is called the Indian Relay Horse races, not Native American Horse races. Haines was always a slow rodeo, but I hear in recent years, it is slower and disorganized.

@Big Muddy rancher I haven't been to the Calgary Stampede since I was 10, but have always enjoyed watching it on TV.

@Faster horses Yep, it is usually hotter than the Devils embers during Roundup time and all the added body heat raises the air temp by 10 degrees, I think. The sweat raises the humidity and the BO lowers the air quality. Why I ever thought it was fun, escapes me. I hate crowds unless they are bovines and not the kind you milk. I prefer herd over crowd. I remember the year of the oxen renegades.

I did enjoy the Indian Relay Horse races and then the Happy Canyon Pow Wow, but the last several years, this all happens after my bedtime.

Pendleton has a population of about 17.000 and the Roundup week draws over 50,000 people to the town. That is too many, too fast, in too small an area for me. The city parks look like Woodstock.

 

[webfoot]

I have a friend who was my son's Babe Ruth baseball coach. He was the chief of the Chehalis tribe. He told me that he wasn't much on this Native American stuff. Said he had been an Indian all his life and planned on staying an Indian for the rest of it.

 

[webfoot]

I think the best thing about Pendleton is the peanut gallery. The cowboys and cowgirls who aren't up go out and sit in the grass to watch the rough stock buck. Every now and them a bronc or bull and the pickup men run through the gallery scattering the cowboys who have been sitting on the ground. It was fun 50 some years ago. It is fun to watch now.

 

[Older Whiskey]

I think the best thing about Pendleton is the peanut gallery. The cowboys and cowgirls who aren't up go out and sit in the grass to watch the rough stock buck. Every now and them a bronc or bull and the pickup men run through the gallery scattering the cowboys who have been sitting on the ground. It was fun 50 some years ago. It is fun to watch now.

Yep, that is what makes it real rodeo hahaha! I love bull riding and especially when it ends with a walk away landing that becomes a run away, but the bull get some great neck action under his butt and launches him over 10' in the air as if to say, "Can you plant the landing twice cowboy?"

 

[webfoot]

Yep, that is what makes it real rodeo hahaha! I love bull riding and especially when it ends with a walk away landing that becomes a run away, but the bull get some great neck action under his butt and launches him over 10' in the air as if to say, "Can you plant the landing twice cowboy?"

I traveled with a guy who was a world champion bull rider. But I always wondered why they got on bulls. Horses that buck I understand. But who was the first idiot that said run that bull in I bet I can ride him. I have heard it said that bull riders think bareback bronc riders are crazy. We weren't crazy. Just wild men on half wild horses. It was just fun. In the words of Chris Ladoux if I had it to do over again I wouldn't have drove so slow.

 

[Faster horses]

Tammy is watching the Cowboy Up Challenge from the Calgary Stampede on Youtube. Faster Horses I bet Jack would enjoy it.

I bet he would, but we don't subscribe to youtube. Maybe we should.

Our grandson has a show on youtube, we had to go to a relative's house to watch it. He is Jack'd Up Trucks and he has a 'build' business where he takes old FORD (has to be Ford) pickups, keeps the cabs but redoes everything else. New chassis, new interior, wheels, everything. The youtube of him and his business/crew was very good. He lives in Upton, WY and that's where his shop is. He manages to stay very busy.

We are going to get rid of Dish, so I will check into youtube.

 

[webfoot]

I was thinking about Joseph so I looked it up. All the performances start at 7:00. Figure the rodeo will be done at 9:00 - 9:30. And it is well over 2 hours to get home. I hate driving at night anymore so Joseph is out. Farm City is too hot. Sister... Traffic through Redmond is terrible. St Paul is great but too far away. Caldwell is famous for the drunk crazy people. Prineville is already done for the year. Homedale is too expensive for a little home town pumpkin rolling rodeo. I already went to the Big Loop. That is better than these sanctioned rodeos anyway. Hmmmmm maybe I won't go to another rodeo this year. Or maybe I should throw caution to the wind and go to Vegas for the NFR.

 

[webfoot]

It is 100 degrees on the deck. Haines or any other rodeo in this part of the world would be miserable today. I remember riding at a few of those kind. Thinking about them gives me PTSD. I sat in front of the AC and watched Calgary on TV.
I remember riding at one when it was 104. It was the last one of a 4th of July run of 5 rodeos in 4 states,. When we left we stopped at a park on a lake. We all jumped in. That was the year JAWS came out. In the middle of our frolicking someone asked there aren't sharks in fresh water are there? Everyone froze in motion for a moment...... no there are no sharks