A gathering of Cowboys......
I didn’t set out to take any photos today, I just wanted to enjoy riding on a nice crisp winter day. 9:00 AM and the morning was clear and sunny and a nice 45 degrees, I pulled on some thermals and hit the road. I didn’t even have a destination in mind , I just took off. Before I knew it I was in Wickenburg , just enjoying riding around this old West town.
Then I passed something on the side of the road that caught my eye. Freshly groomed rodeo arenas and huge pens filled with hundreds of steers. I could also see huge parking areas filling up with pickups pulling horse trailers and fifth wheel trailers.
I hit the brakes and turned around.....
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I followed a pickup truck from Wyoming , pulling a horse trailer down a dirt road to a huge rodeo grounds.
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They are gearing up for a big event running Friday, Saturday and Sunday. People were pulling in, one after the other from all the Western States with cowboy cultures, Wyoming, Montana, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado were just a few that I saw. This one is going to be Team Roping and Barrel Racing , a qualifying event for a National championship. Arizona has a rich history of cattle ranching and rodeos, we are home to two of the worlds oldest rodeos, in Payson and Prescott. Wickenburg is no slouch in the Western history department either, cowboy culture is still very big in this town.
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It’s still pretty quiet here right now, they’re just pulling in. But by tonight these horse stalls will be filled. There’s more not shown in this photo.
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Tomorrow the fun begins!
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And it’s , “ So long girl, I’ll see ya” , when it’s time for him to go......
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“And a broken home and some broken bones
Is all he'll have to show
For all the years that he spent chasin'
This dream they call rodeo”