The big week in Pueblo

Well, its been 5 days and I'm still not sure I can write about the week in Pueblo at National Little Britches finals. Partly because I can't do it without bragging and partly because its hard to sum up the disappointments! I know, a strange mix isn't it!

I traveled out with younger daughter, her hubby and 2 boys who lives in Kansas to see elder daughter and family who live in Colorado take part in the national finals.

First, about the rodeo! What a three-ring show it is! I would not have believed it if I hadn't seen it. Some 800 kids (and their support teams- dad, mom, etc) brought upward toward 2,000 horses (I think they said) to town for 11 performances - 2 go-rounds and the short-go - over 7 days, and longer if you were in the queen contest which middle grand daughter was. The set-up is three simultaneous arenas at once being covered by a couple of announcers trying to cover all of it. If you sit high up in the middle of the grandstand you can watch it all.... sort of. You've got to stay on track to not miss what you want to see. And keep your head on a swivel. I'm thinking a regular one-arena rodeo is going to seem sort of slow after this.

Some heavy rain mid-week before we Kansans got there made for an uneven but interesting playing field. If you drew up on a muddy perf, you were competing against those who drew up on the fast ground that developed later. But that's what rodeo (and life) is all about. Luck of the draw!

My g-daughters had great hopes for the week, and it wasn't just based on wishes or pipe-dreams. Both the girls had proven themselves this summer and were not being big-headed when they dreamed of winning big! However, it was not to be. To win big against kids of this caliber you have to have a little good luck along with your skills, and this was not to be. But they gave it their all and were good sports and of course I'm really proud of them.

It wasn't all in vain! Oldest grand daughter won a buckle in break-away in 1st go and got to come back for Short-go. A barely broken barrier and a loop that jumped off instead of on stopped a couple of runs in the 2 second range. Wow! If only......

Middle grand daughter was name Miss Congeniality in the Little Britches Queen contest. She was so gorgeous! And that smile! How could she have not won the whole thing! But then I'm sure there are other grandmas who can explain to you why that was.

I didn't get my camera out.... I knew that others had theirs and I didn't want to miss anything because my eyes were behind a piece of equipment. However, for those of you who are still reading this, and really care, you can see proofs of the professional photos by going to Cowboy Images. http://www.cowboyimages.net/search.aspx
Put Moyer in the Search box. There are a couple of photos of the queen contestant from Kansas that are mislabeled - her horse has sunflowers - but the rest are my girls. Do you think I'm a proud grandma?