Friday, July 17, 2009

Little Bleat


20 years ago, I went to my first rodeo, in Cody Wyoming. I was quite surprised to see that most of the contestants were High school kids.


The Chicago Tribune looks into the West's version of Pop Warner ball:

Mutton bustin': the Little League of rodeo country
Kids a few years out of diapers 'cowboy up' to ride, or fall off of, sheep -- just like the big boys do with bulls. But in this case, everyone's a champ.


Reporting from Santa Fe, N.M. - It's 30 seconds before his big rodeo ride, and Julian Apodaca looks like he wants to disappear under the wide brim of his white cowboy hat.


He's staring down at his boots, tugging at his lower lip, rubbing at his teary eyes.


Julian's father, a former junior bull-riding champion, has a hand on each of his 5-year-old son's shoulders.


"It's OK, hijo," Vince Apodaca says as somebody plucks the hat off the boy's head and replaces it with a helmet. "Cowboy up, OK? I don't want no crying when you get on there."


This is the world of a little-known but beloved rodeo event where kids a couple of years out of diapers ride sheep just like the big boys ride bulls. Suburban parents put their kids in Little League. In the country, where rodeo is king, parents sign up their kids for mutton bustin'.

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