My First Rodeo

I had never been to a rodeo before. Rozanne and I had been wanting to go to one since we moved to New Mexico, but something always seemed to interfere, schedule-wise. This year, we finally got our chance.

The nice thing about living in Albuquerque is that so much happens here, such as the New Mexico State Fair. Being a state fair in cowboy country, of course they have to feature a rodeo! And it was a good one. We enjoyed it so much, and we’ll be going to more.

We figured that we would be able to get up close to the rail to get some pictures, so we took our all-purpose 24-105mm zooms. We were wrong: All the seats near the front were reserved for VIPs, so we were seated about 8 rows back from the arena. I wonder who all the VIPs were that didn’t show up for the rodeo, since most of the up-close seats were empty for the whole evening.

Despite the poor vantage point, relatively slow lenses, and low light, I got a few decent pictures. None are print-worthy, but it was a fun experience nonetheless.

Here’s some pictures. All were taken with a Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 25-105mm L set at 105mm for most shots, Auto ISO (usually 3200), f4, 1/250 or so. All are very extreme crops.

Barrel racing requires a well-trained horse and a skilled rider to navigate a course in the shortest time. From what I’ve read, barrel racing at the professional level is limited to women.

As usual, you can click on the pictures to see larger versions....Enjoy! And don't forget to subscribe down at the bottom of the page.

Although there were many other events at the rodeo, we were too far away to get any good pictures. The highlight of the evening comes at the end, with bull riding. It’s very exciting, and dangerous for both the riders and handlers, more commonly known as rodeo clowns.

Few riders made it the entire 8 seconds on a bull to qualify for a score, but it was exciting to watch.

I was amazed at how energetic and agile the bulls were. Whenever I have seen bulls in the past, it was usually from a moving car and the bulls had their heads down and eating grass, which isn't particularly exciting. The rodeo changed my perception.

And it's dangerous! I thought this guy was going to have the bull come down on him with both rear hooves after he was bucked off. The bulls keep bucking and kicking even after the rider is laying on the ground.

Watch how the rodeo clown puts himself in harm's way to protect the rider. Everyone was okay in the end.