We went to the Xtreme Bulls rodeo last night. I’m sure everyone knows we’re not really the rodeo type, but Winnercomm produced this show and I was able to get free tickets. I’d never been to a rodeo before so my expectations weren’t all that high. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.

First off there wasn’t even a hint of cow manure in the air so that made it much easier to stay in the arena for two and a half hours. We weren’t nearly as out of place as I expected, there were quite a few people not wearing cowboy boots and belt buckles so large you could serve Thanksgiving dinner on them. I was also really suprised at the music selection. Didn’t hear a single Garth Brooks or Alan Jackson song, but did here AC/DC, Queen and Metallica.

This was a major national competition, not your standard local rodeo, but the arena wasn’t very full. I’d imagine everyone else had the same assumptions we did. I also didn’t hear any advertisements for it other than working at Winnercomm, then again I don’t exactly listen to KVOO. The tickets also seemed fairly expensive to me. The seats we were in go for $50 a pop.

I got lots of really good action shots of the bull riding, unfortuantely they all turned out blurry. I guess the lighting was too low to take the shot before the bulls moved with the default action setting. I could have set it to manual mode and easily captured the shots, but I didn’t think it was necessary until I got home and saw the pictures I had. He’s a couple of shots though.

They had some pretty interesting ‘seventh inning stretch’ events too. They had a Caterpillar type machine come smooth out the dirt and do some wheelies and spins and stuff. And they had the cowboy monkey. Dress up a monkey, strap him to any animal and set them loose and it’s bound to get a good laugh or two. Those who know him might notice Tim Morgan at the bottom of this picture. We ran into him and Jennie there, along with Jason and Megan Dillard. Jason also works at Winnercomm in the camera room, so he had got the free tickets too. Here’s the rest of the photos.