Rodeo Comes to Town

When you think of California you may not think of cowboys and rodeo.

I know I never imagined living in a place where I could go to the college library and just as easily hear the chink of spurs as I could hear the clatter of baseball cleats or football grunts.

California however is a pretty lively place when it comes to competition and rodeo is pretty big in the Central Valley. Hence our local community college, and my Alma Mater by the way, has spent some months and a good deal of money building a rodeo ground just outside of town.

The official opening was last week and yesterday, Saturday April 6 there was a competition day with all sorts of rodeo sports like bull riding and roping. The main event was early in the afternoon and sadly I missed that part as my wife and I went across the valley to do some major shopping.

We got back into town in the mid afternoon and decided to go and watch some of the later rodeo games.

We arrived there in time for the Women's events, calf roping.

The afternoon was very enjoyable. I got to be pretty good at assessing times as the horses always stopped pretty well in my line of sight against light colored posters depending on my head position I could guess within about half a second on their times.

Sadly I could not, of course, enjoy the detail of style and technique it was a fun day out doing something different.

As a blind person we miss out on a lot by staying away from such events but getting out there despite our blindness we can still have a lot of fun and enjoyment.