Meinzer
Audrey Powles
Recently my kids participated in their first junior rodeo. We spent the weeks leading up to this event practicing their events. From poles to barrels, goat tail untying to the flag race, we spent countless hours in grandpa’s arena learning the basics and trying to get better with every run. It brought back memories of my childhood and playing in gymkhana rodeos at the Hugo Roping Club. Each event is timed, but they are meant to teach the basics of rodeo to children. With each passing practice, my kids grew more confident, they started to have that competitive spirit and I could tell that their mother and I had created a new hobby for them.
I don’t know how many of you dear readers have ever witnessed a junior rodeo but let me tell you it is a barrel of fun. The young competitors all act like this is their National Finals Rodeo and the smiles on their faces are as wide as the floppy hats that most of them wear. See most ranch kids reshape their cowboy hats after dad has worked long and hard to get them looking presentable to the general public. Unlike Dad’s method of shaping that involves a tea kettle and steam on the stove, the kids shape their hats by throwing them in the floorboards of the pickup and stepping on them when they get out of their car seats. They forget what Dad taught them about putting their hat on by holding the crown, instead they pull it down over their ears by the brim until it looks like the Flying Nun’s hat. Dirt stains from where the horse tramples their hat when it flies off just give it more character, and if you try to take it away from them to reshape it, you might as well try to fight a grizzly bear.
Most of the horses used in the younger age divisions of the junior rodeo are old enough to vote. They have retired from hard days of work on the ranch and now are tasked with packing young buckaroos around. These little passengers have a need for speed, though many of them can’t persuade their mounts to move any faster than a trot. These old babysitter horses aren’t bothered by the tiny kicks from spurs on little feet, and most of them only care about getting back to the barn where there is grain. The young jockeys guide their mounts through poles, around barrels and towards frightening horse eating goats with a ribbon in their tail.
The little cowboys and cowgirls have the time of their life swapping stories with their little cowboy pals; all the while mom and dad spend their day getting them prepared for the next event. Dear old dad carries buckets of water to the babysitter ponies. Lord help him if he waters the wrong horse out of the wrong color bucket. See at the junior rodeo, the kids are there to compete and have fun. Mom and dad, however, are tasked with keeping things organized. Mom usually has the program in her hands and instructs the rest of the family where they need to be for their next event. Dad is the chief grunt for the day. He loads all the tack, picnic tables, lawn chairs, water buckets and grill into the trailer, and spends his day saddling horses, watering them, cooking burgers for the family, fighting with the pop-up sunshade and cheering on his little ones in every event. It truly is a team effort, the kids might win a ribbon or a couple dollars cash and mom and dad will be breaking out the Tylenol before the day is over, but the memories made will last a lifetime.
The next time you see a junior rodeo advertised, I invite you to take it in. You’ll see sportsmanship in action, young athletes caring for their mounts, and sunburned parents searching for the pop-up canopy that blew away in a gust of wind. That’s all for this time, be sure to pack all the essentials in the trailer, and make sure there is Tylenol for the parents on the ride home. Keep tabs on your side of the barbed wire and God bless.
Meinzer is a fourth-generation rancher raised on the southeastern plains of Colorado. He and his family live and ranch in Oshkosh, Neb.
