rodeo

Action!
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Action!

Hail, you awesome human

For beauty is as beauty does and you all do it so well.  Test your skills and competitive edge, test your knowledge and constant training, test your fortitude and your companionship, test your ability to train and command.  Hail, all you beauties.  The judges watch in eager support, the crowd cheers at the dare devil within and the champion of this match is an unrivaled and much heralded success.  Glory and honour to this golden crown, the skills of the beauty are unsurpassed.  A pageant queen that has never been questioned.  No one disputes the necessity of this  test, or the rights of these women to compete.

A test of skills and nerve and fortitude, an inspiration to all who watch and to those who jealously eye the crown.  The secret to success is the fabulously well trained body and the perfection of the match.

He listens closely  to the voice in his ear and responds immediately to the command.  A match of perfect unison as they plunge headlong into the race.  Over and over, the practice was perfect, now only to attain the unbeatable speed  that will send them on to victory.  Hours of training, hours spend in competition, train your body, train your mind and harness the superior beast.

Quietly down in the rolling countryside, where a days work begins at dawn and life is a routine of milking the cows, feeding the chickens and harvesting the crops.  The peaceful country life, ideally set in the picturesque landscape.  A life, so seemingly simple, that anyone could do it.

Canadian Cowboys’ Association Ladies Barrel Racing Highlights- Canadian Western Agribition

at http://www.RodeoCanada.com, from http://www.youtube.ca

But from that land of simple charm, comes an athlete of a different proportion.  Tall in the saddle, high in their ability, the twosome walk into center stage.  The drama unfolds.  Like their forefathers of yesteryear, the cowboy is still the same.  A bull rider, a bronco buster ,a  barrel racer, a calf roper and a highly skilled athlete.

Now it is the ladies turn, a competition of their own.  To train and command the powerful  horse and to demand the speed and agility for this course.

The quiet of the country, so peaceful and so dreamy.  Where all of the rush of the  rodeo comes from.  A country life with it’s own unique culture, it’s own unique identity, privileges and heroes.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

October 27, 2015

The Quiet of the County
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The Quiet of the County

Hail Bravehearts

To bravery and skill and monumental tasks, to competition and necessity and getting the job done.  Those were the days of heady exploration, of building a country of home on the range.  Those were the days of cattle drives and opening up the land.  The days of ranching, homesteading and the cowboy.

Those were our yesterdays.  But still, in the quiet of the land, in the rolling countryside, in the far off place where only the dirt roads go, lies the key to our past and our splendid present, the future still holds this truth.  The land of the cowboy, where steer wresting and bronco busting fills a part of their daily lives.

Rise to the songs of the livestock rustling, of the wind blowing through the fields and the quiet of dawn. The world sleeps at this hour, but the morning sun is rising and the daily chores must be done.  Oh lonesome cowboy, of song and spirit, the day calls to you to earn your daily bread.  Come out to the pasture, a new day is calling, come out to a day’s work of home on the range.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nht3bMUebzI  mini bronc at the Edson Stampede

The chickens proudly display their treasure, a new gift of food to their delighted owner.  Chuckling and prancing their days work is done, as a new egg lies gleaming in the early morning sun.  The cattle line up in their stalls eagerly waiting, their milk has come and it must be taken.  Their gift, their treasure, more food for the farmer.  The family farm where no one starves.  The fields grow tall with grains for bread and a days work of harvesting lies just ahead.  The fruit tree ripens and sends it’s gifts to us, the bounty of the harvest lies in the basket.  A forage through the garden reveals the tasty lettuce, the carrots and spinach awaiting the platter, a days work is done when the weeds are pulled and the  ground is bursting with delicious, nutritional plants.  No more the hungry, no more the worry, the life of the farm is wholesome and ready.

At the end of the day, when the sun still shines brightly, brings a time for rest and relaxation.  A time for the energizing sport of the days of yesteryear, a time when the cowboy and ranching and riding filled their lives.   Livestock herding and breeding and taming the wild.  That horse out yonder, who must be rode, that sport for dollars and it makes sense, if you know their custom and their culture, the rodeo is a must.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3M4xhx42tc  Saddle Bronc Ride at the Calgary Stampede 2015

Ride,  you sportsmen, ride.  Break that wild horse, who  must listen.  Tame the beast to be your own and ride, for your life, you cowboy, ride!  It is not just  sport, it is not just a test, it is the taming of the wild as the horse must be ridden and taught to do a job.  From here, the training persists and the quiet of the country fills with the joy of yet another day in the saddle.

 

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

October 10, 2015

A Simple Country Life
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A Simple Country Life

Hail Oh Brilliant Ones

Muscle and brawn, determination and might.  The power of the body and the mind in a challenge for victory for us all. Strength and will, focus and mindset, the power of the objective is a lure of contentment.  Bring on the bull, bring on the market, bring on the challenge that proves the might of this power.

Ride for your lives, oh glorious ones, a challenge unusual, but necessary for a culture of unique bravery and unique courage.  The fight between man and beast in a contest of wills to tame the savagery out of the wild.  Bring on the bull, the market is waiting, for this is an animal of fierce power and fierce mindset.

As in all wild things, the thought of taming it,  is an exciting interest to some of us.  The challenge to ride an unusual animal, who’s interests are for protection and preservation of it’s own kind.  Bought and paid for, the bull is owned, but not really tame.  A bull is a powerhouse of strength and musculature, with a brain focused on survival.  He is the fittest, the rightful, the protector of the herd and his temper and adrenalin flair with anger.  From intruders and strangers, the bull protects it’s land with seething contempt for outsiders.  Nostrils flair, stomping and pounding, steely gaze and snorting breath, the bull challenges.  Run, you cowards, save yourselves!  This animal will not allow a trespasser.

A mild farm animal, to the unwitting and unknowing, this is an animal of unpredictable nature and immense girth.  Stay away, stay out of the paddock, don’t go near the bull.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocX5EXgHmGU  bull riding in Canada

Hop on board, you daring cowboy.  Ride the vicious bull.  Tame the wild beast of farmyard passivity.  The quiet country way, the rolling landscape, the picturesque farm nestled into a hillside, the pastures dotted with grazing animals, all tame and well fed, all quiet and calm in the peaceful countryside.

A challenge is upon us, to beat a vicious and untameable foe, an animal of fierceness and endurance, power and meanness.  The bull will fight for it’s life and kill it’s adversary.  Stomping and flailing, sharpened horns and massive body, who will ride the bull?

An interesting and exciting diversion from quiet country life.  The birds sing in the trees and nature plays out it’s everyday fascination.  Ponds filled with ducks and waterfowl dot the landscape, marshland is preserved for it’s own sake and the wild encroaches with timid apprehension.  Sometimes foxes, sometimes deer, the pastures in the farm attract the more daring of the wild, who linger along it’s fringes.  A simple co-existence, usually without distress.

But the bull is an adversary.  A wild and difficult animal.  He exists for himself. For his powerful genetics win the show ribbons and he’s the champion of them all.

Ride on, oh cowboys.  Laughing and daring, rope in hand.  Farm life is not for simple minded folk.  Your own  strong, agile bodies, tested against the steel of a bull headed animal. Determined and stubborn, willful and massive, ride on, you cowboys, to glory and courage and to conquer the wild of the farm.  The massive bull.

written by Dr. Louise Hayes

September 20, 2015