10/06/05 Outside the arena Part 1

Outside The Arena Sometimes all the rodeo and cowboy action is not in the arena. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll tell you what I mean in one minute. One of the rodeos that I remember had more than its share of excitement outside the arena. This rodeo was one of the first of the season, so a large number of contestants had entered. It's kind of like the start of any sports seasoneveryone has a chance to be the winner at the end of the year and nobody has any major injuries. My brother was at the rodeo to help out since he had went a day early to shoe all the pick-up horses. Other extra help was there also because of the size of the rodeo. The bull riders really turned out in force so the stock contractor had to lease bulls from another contractor. The rodeo was a lot of fun until the bull riding section that featured the leased bulls. The second bull of that section wallowed off down the arena giving a pretty poor imitation of a rodeo bull except for the one jump that put him over the arena fence. Somebody opened a gate and we got around him before he decided he wanted to go anywhere other than back in the arena. The next big horned bull did unload his rider in pretty good style and acted normal until he just skipped over the fence. These bulls could jump! My brother and another good hand grabbed the extra pick-up horses and played bull hide and seek through a residential area averting one almost-ugly meeting between a local citizen and the wayward bull. Before this bull could be brought back to the arena the "third times the charm" worked in reverse and the third bull jumped the substantial arena fence. We'll have to get him back in tomorrow's visit. I'm Jeff Keane.