Valentine's Day at the rodeo

One of the biggest happenings in S. Texas is the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, a 3-week event that takes up as much real estate as the Bloomsburg Fair (for those of you in PA, you know what I mean) with a NBA arena to boot. Of course we had to go! So that's where we spent Valentine's Day. :)

The rodeo itself is a two-hour show every day, twice on the weekends, that is a real, honest-to-goodness competition in seven different events: bareback riding, bronco busting (with saddles), bull riding, calf roping, pairs calf roping, steer wrestling, and barrel racing (the only one for women). We saw some real skill and talent in all the stereotypical cowboy skills -- it was cool. We also saw a teenage "calf scramble" - a group calf roping event, kind of -- and the little kid "mutton bustin", where little kids hold on for dear life to a large running sheep. VERY funny. And between each event were rodeo clowns, precision horse riding, etc. We all enjoyed it immensely, to our surprise. We did not stay for the concert afterward; each rodeo had a big-name country singer or band following it, for the same ticket price. If you like country music, you could have an amazing 2 1/2 weeks for not much money.

Then there's the whole grounds extravaganza, with carnival, food, petting zoo, animal stalls, etc. Katie loved the petting zoo, of course, and I have to say I've never seen one with roaming llamas and wallabies.


The highlight for Katie was the swine sprints, a tongue-in-cheek potbellied pig race that we had been told not to miss. We didn't, and it was worth it for the look on our kid's face every time the pigs ran in front of her.

We've now finally seen the Texas with cowboy boots, cowboy hats, and big hair. It was at the rodeo.