Millarville Rodeo

[Rick C]

I spent a few hours at the rodeo yesterday, at the Millarville fair grounds, not far from my house southwest of Calgary. Rodeo isn't for everyone, of course, so buyer beware:

Below, steer wrestling in a dusty infield. The cowboy exits a separate chute alongside the running steer, drops off his horse onto the steer and wrestles it to the ground:



Below, the thrills . . .



Below, one hand and hanging on for eight seconds:



Below, the spills, out the back door:



. . . . . or leaving by the front door . . .



Below, eight seconds done, coming to the rescue . . . .



Below, still walking upright but hurtin'



Below, a dusty infield for the calf roping:



Below, conversations . . . .



Below, gotta pay the bills with some advertising . . .



Rick C
www.goldentales.ca

[angeldogs]

Great action shots.

[14+kitties]

Neat shots!
I was at the Stampede one year. Loved it! But then I love watching the pros on TV too! 8 seconds is sometimes a long, long time!
Just out of curiousity - is your camera with you/nearby when you do your runs too? That would be neat to get pics of.

[Rick C]

Originally Posted by 14+kitties

Neat shots!
I was at the Stampede one year. Loved it! But then I love watching the pros on TV too! 8 seconds is sometimes a long, long time!
Just out of curiousity - is your camera with you/nearby when you do your runs too? That would be neat to get pics of.

Haha, no, I don't take pictures of myself running!!! That would be difficult and strange.

However, you are correct to surmise it is beautiful early on a summer morning, loping across the prairie on an old country highway I frequent, not far from the house. I can run an hour and a half or two hours down the centre and have to get out of the way of only two or three vehicles, surrounded all the time by the prairie. Sunglasses, shorts, a t-shirt and a water bottle near sun-up. Alone. Picturesque. And it's a nice run in the winter too.

I ran the Big Sur Half-Marathon last November on a beautiful seaside morning in Monterey and Pacific Grove. Me and 5000 of my closest friends. http://www.bigsurhalfmarathon.org/photogallery.htm

My favourite running moments last year might have been in Rome, getting up at six in the morning and running past a deserted St. Peter's Square, up Janiculum Hill to see the sun rising over the Colosseum and Palantine, then down through the narrow, twisting cobblestones of Trastevere before descending to the Tiber River via Ponte Sisto, running for miles and miles off the map before returning to Castel Sant Angelo, then back to the hotel.

It's a kind of Rome even the natives probably rarely see. . . . . . an empty Rome with little or no traffic, an occasional couple entwined on Janiculum Hill, a band of gypsies snoring underneath one of the bridges near Castel Sant Angelo as a matron rythemically and habitually swept the dust around them . . . . . an ancient drinking fountain to sip in along the way . . . . .

I had a beautiful early morning run in Milan as well as along the Arno in Florence.

The neat experience of the year for me will be in October, returning from walking up Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, meeting Carol in Amsterdam for a week and running the Ing half-marathon in that city on the last day there.

I'm starting to pick up on the "running tourism" thing. Maybe the Delhi half-marathon might make my list in future years.

I'll run about six halves and one full marathon . . . or seven halves . . . depending on my fitness this year, plus an 18 km backcountry leg on the Kananaskis 100 relay in a few weeks.

Below, a lone runner along the Tiber in Rome, at dusk, with Janiculum Hill in the background.



Hahaha . . . . long-winded reply.

Bottom line, running in strange places at strange hours is a great way to see things.

Rick C
www.goldentales.ca

[Love4himies]

Your photos are always so perfect. I don't know if I could watch a rodeo, but I did like to visit the horses during the Rainmaker Rodeo in St Albert when I lived there. There is a walking/biking path along the area where the horses are stalled during it.

[want4rain]

*dreamy* a life we all envy. these pics arent as beautiful as your others but they are quite alive!! still breath taking.

-ashley