Rodeo Drive

A popular evening event at the Hoosier Horse Fair is the Ranch Rodeo. This differs a little from a traditional rodeo in that the cowboys are competing in events that match some of the typcial tasks found on a working ranch. The cowboys compete in teams, and the welfare of the animals is always a priority.

In ranch team sorting, the team has to sort or "cut" three calves from the herd and pen them. The calves are numbered, and the announcer will call the number of the cattle to be cut. Here, one member of the Indiana High School Rodeo team moves into the herd in search of the designated cattle.

After the three calves are separated from the herd, they drive them into the pen at the other end of the arena. It's much harder than it sounds!

Brose McVey was there helping with the rodeo. He is a Purdue grad, and an AGR, and he's running for Congress.

In team doctoring, the four-cowboy team waits for two calves to be released. They then have to rope them, get them down, and tie three legs before the time limit is up. Here, the calf is down, and the cowboy is tying.

And he's done!

The horses stand quietly after the calf has been roped and the cowboy jumps off.

Here are a couple of the calves trying to avoid the rope.

The black and white calf was BIG, and TOUGH. I don't think they ever did get him down. Here you can see that two cowboys are working to tie one calf while their teammates work on the other in the background.

Cowboys are Tough Enough to Wear Pink for breast cancer awareness.

This team includes some cowboys from Decatur and Jennings counties.

Roping the calf.

Getting him down.

And tying.

Their technique was to get one calf tied, and then the other.

Second calf is tied!

This Indiana high school cowboy demonstrated one way to stop a calf. Kind of like water skiing.

They finally got him.

One of the most entertaining events is wild cow milking. The cow is roped, then one cowboy has to attempt to milk her into a bottle, run to the judge's circle where he checks to see if there is milk and marks the time. That cow is really not interested in having a cowboy mess with her udder. This is definitely not Elsie.

Here is the local team getting the job done.

He presents the milk bottle to the judge. I think he even has a smile on his face.