winning the Stick Horse Rodeo

On the last Saturday of January, Samuel and Ezra participated in the Stock Show's World's Smallest Rodeo Stick Horse competition. 

We are not cowboys in this family (despite going to Rainbow Bible Ranch every summer), but Terry's folks are ranchers. It was them who saw an ad in the paper about the Stick Horse Rodeo and thought it would be great for the grandkids, Samuel, Ezra, Grace, and Sarah. They were right!

So Terry took in all of their registrations and Evie got the boys all wrangled together to do some stick horse rodeo practicing. That girl is seriously amazing. Mommy doesn't do this stuff but the eight year old daughter does. Wow.

So we arrived at the Civic Center, the kids picked out their stick horses, and everyone got in line. The kids were exactly like cattle in the shoots leading to the corral. Ha!

Next the rodeo queens were introduced followed by the three different age groups of kids. Samuel and Grace were just barely still five years old and so able to participate. 

Three year old Ezra. Sarah was nearby but I don't think I got a picture of her. Notice how we only had one cowboy dress up costume and Samuel got it since it was his. Ha ha, poor Ezra, maybe next year.

The kids first competed in pole bending. Samuel and Grace below:

Ezra and Sarah

Next came barrel racing.

Ezra followed his little rodeo queen around the barrels.

Samuel's video:




Ezra's race:




In the end they let the kids just ride wild in the corral. It was adorable and looked like so much fun.

Ezra.

Ezra and Samuel. Grace was there too but Sarah had ducked out for this part. I guess she had enough.

There's the whole wild horse ride.



Afterwards we were so surprised to hear Samuel's number called as the winner for the 5 year old boy group! Shortly thereafter we were approached by a reporter wanting an interview with Samuel and one of us! Whoa.

This cute little reporter pulled Samuel and Terry over to a quieter area and I stood at a distance observing. All I really saw was her asking Samuel questions to which he shrugged his shoulders in answer to. Inwardly I cringed a little. I wondered if she would be able to piece together any actual words from him!

We were very pleasantly surprised when we watched the piece on the 9 o'clock news that evening. Samuel did fantastic! He was so cute!

Here is the actual transcript of the aired piece and video:

The Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo continues, and on Saturday children showed off their stick horse skills.

Black Hills FOX Reporter Katrina Lim takes us to the World's Smallest Rodeo.

At the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, children from three to five years old showed how well they could handle stick horses.

First they zoomed through pole bending and dashed through barrel racing.

Then they finished the rodeo off with a wild horse ride.

Four-year-old Emsley Whittington participated in the World's Smallest Rodeo last year and prepped for the big day with some shopping.

Emsley Whittington says, "Buy new boots yesterday and eat breakfast."

Some kids did some nose dives, but most of them just enjoyed themselves and got back up.

Samuel B. won the five-year-old category for boys and says his favorite event was the wild horse ride.

Samuel B. says, "I like that one, but I fell once. I fell once, but I just got back up and ran."

Samuel's father Terry B. is proud of his son's win, but at first he was unsure how he would do.

Terry B. says, "We were a little unsure how he would do because he's never been in something like this and we didn't know if he'd want to participate, but he got into it and did really great."

Emsley's grandfather Dave Whittington enjoys seeing the kids have fun and says they all had different "riding" styles.

Dave Whittington says, "It's a lot of fun. It's exciting to see different kids do it a little bit differently. Some look like they've practiced a lot and others it may be their first time on a stick horse."

B. says his son was actually able to get some practice in beforehand.

Terry B. says, "The day that he found out, his sister actually set up a little course for him and his younger brother. They both were in it today and so she made them practice barrel racing and stuff like that. They got really pumped up right away when they found out that they were going to do it so they had a little practice."

Youth Rodeo Queens were on-hand to help the rodeo contestants.

And there was a boy winner and a girl winner in each age category.

The Stock Show started on Friday and will go on until February 5th.

Katrina Lim, Black Hills FOX News.

Samuel won a little gift certificate for a free pair of jeans or shirt. What a fun, fantastic day it turned out to be!