Tag Archives: rodeo

Back to Texas

Posted on by kathousekelli70

We lit out for Texas this morning after a hearty Cracker Barrel breakfast. Got to say the bacon at this one was better than yesterday’s. 

We headed toward Pecos, Odessa, Midland via the beautiful Franklin Mountains State Park and Castner Range. It’s a steep incline/decline at 5244ft (still only half the height of some of the mountains we’ve been on in Colorado and only just a couple hundred feet shorter than our highest mountain in Australia) but the roads are perfect.

Lots of inland travel and into Texas, traveling the 180 through Carlsbad Caverns National Park, back up to 5700ft through Guadalupe Mountains National Park and passed the Butterfield Trail Marker.

The Butterfield Overland Trail (or Oxbow Route) traversed through Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. It was pre Civil War mail and passenger stagecoach route operating between 1858 and 1861.

What a hell of a trip during that time over this sort of terrain in all sorts of weather!

Cross country slight trip into New Mexico and back into the Texas panhandle we are back in oil and gas land through Orla – a very productive area.

On to Pecos where we stopped again and caught the damaged historic railroad  depot, Judge Roy Bean’s, Jersey Lily and the gravesite of ‘gentleman gunfighter’ Clay Allison.

Keep heading East through oil fields of Barstow and on into Odessa.

Quick stop at the Indian store for Jack – picked up a poker chip – checked out the bikes.

From here we went to Midland again and this time got to visit the Bush Family Home. A State Historic site in Midland, Texas.

The original home was built in 1939 for Mildred Etheridge and features the original knotty pine walls and floors.

After a few moves around in 1948-1950 the Bush’s settled in Midland during his oil times prior to politics.

The Bush’s, George H. W and Barbara were associated with cancer research during and after their daughter Robin’s death due to Leukemia, with baseball which George W. had a love for also.

George W. had a love for baseball and Roy Rogers. He eventually had a part ownership in the Texas Rangers baseball team.

The house is still going under preservation and getting it back to period correct interior. There were so many fun ‘ancient’ things like the refrigerator, bakelite phone, uranium glass and more.

Thanks Chase for his exceptional guided tour!

A stay in Midland again before moving to Novice tomorrow.

Night!

Kat x

Bronc Rider

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Western Scarves – a $12 whim at the Pony Express Museum and actual Home Station No.1 in Marysville, Kansas. (Wow! Talk about bring back memories when Jack and I discussed the last Pony Express places we had visited last year!)

 

Funnily enough we were just watching the 1953 film version of Pony Express whilst having this discussion.

The book became the inspiration for the B-Western ensemble for Comin' In Hot and Alamo Andy.

I spent many hours sorting designs, incorporating cactus, boots, horseshoes, rope and stars. The main feature would be the bucking bronc rider.

 

Back to the Western Scarves book. Cowboy's admittedly wore scarves in the practical sense. Keeping out cold, dust and other weather elements whilst riding the open range but it was later into the 1940's and 50's where gorgeous silk scarves were manufactured for rodeo and other events. Silk being the chosen fabric of the time as there was much produced for parachutes during the War.

They soon became a fun genre of rope twirling, bucking bronc cowboys with as many other western elements that could be crammed onto one 18″-36″ square piece of fabric!

Of course the rodeo and souvenir versions became bright and colourful, very different to the muted or 'turkey red' of range days.

In my wild imagination I could see brown, turquoise and red with all other colours made up in other elements. In reality, I found that to my organised eye some things just weren't to gel on this occasion and it became a slightly frustrating journey to the final product.

I found another interesting 1940's feature and injected that into the base of the skirt, with a vivid red detail trimmed in the same peacock piping as the rest of the garment. This would serve as a different trim than the usual fringe finish.

 

Finally the bronc, stars, rope and horseshoes all seemed to fit and with tiny 2mm (remind me when I say I am never buying that size again!!) Aqua and Amber coloured bling it is finished to a subtle vintage look.

 

I hope they like this matching ensemble, they did turn out nice and I hope Comin' In Hot has boots with similar colours to mine in the picture because they certainly picked up the rope detail in it and would be a great option to pair with it.

Kat xo

 

Greeley Stampede

Posted on by kathousekelli70

Monday afternoon we headed off with Wild Horse John and Saginaw Sue to the Greeley Stampede in Colorado. The grounds were jumping with carnival rides, vendors and bars. John had organised great seats with a good view to the arena, the chutes and the bull riding when they made the arena shorter.

 

It was a well organised smaller rodeo with some great action throughout the course of the evening with events like Bareback Riding, Saddle Bronc Riding! Steer Wrestling, Tie Down Roping, Team Roping, Barrel Racing, Bull Riding and I think the highlight was the little kids doing the Mutton Bustin'. Hilarious! They would bring in a sheep, bucking and carrying on, grab a kid (rodeo riders in the making), get the kid situated on the sheets back and have hem hold on for dear life for as log as they could. One little cowboy in his lime green chaps rode the sheep just about the full length of the arena and of course won.

 

The rodeo announcer interviewed him after and as they say, kids have no filter when they are little and just tell it like it is.

Announcer: 'where did you get those chaps from?' Mini 5yr old cowboy in the sweetest voice: 'online'. The announcer was a little lost for words and then 'would you like to win a new pair of boots?' Mini cowboy: 'yes'. Announcer: 'would you give Miss Rodeo Colorado a kiss for a new pair of boots?' Mini cowboy: 'no!'

Haa haa haa, priceless, needless to say the boots were his prize for winning so he still got them and I think Miss Rodeo Colorado was just a little heartbroken lol!

 

The 5th generation of Beutler's (3rd, 4th and 5th generations to be precise) Bennie, Rhett and 11 yr old Jake rode the arena and Jake helped out rounding up stray steer's throughout the steer roping and the finale with the bronc's. The family from Elk City, OK are stock contractors and provide the horses and bulls for rodeos across the nation.

 

Had a blast, thanks very much John!

Kat xo