Sisters Rodeo Slack Day 2023
What is a ‘Slack Day” and why is it in this blog? Good questions buckaroos. The first part is easy. Slack Day is a day between ‘performances’ when competitors who couldn’t get into the regular performance part of the rodeo get to compete. Maybe there were too many steer wrestlers to fit the allotted time in the performances. At the Sisters Rodeo it is also free to watch and photographers (Boyd in this case) can stand next to the arena fence. So it is a great opportunity to make some images of a pretty unique piece of western culture. So are you ready to pull up your Wrangler’s and tighten up that belt? Let’s Rodeo.
For those who aren’t sure what these images are about let’s start with steer wrestling. The idea is to jump off a horse onto a steer weighing about 500 pounds, and as quickly as possible throw the steer to the ground. Oh and the steer is running as fast as it can. Which means the horse is also running pretty darn fast. Yes 180-pound man tackles 500-pound steer from the back of an 800-pound horse in under 10 seconds. Easy Peezy. What could possibly go wrong?
Maybe steer wrestling is too brute force for your taste. Maybe team roping is more in your corral. Start with a calf in the chute, a cowboy on a horse with a lariat (that lasso thing) on each side of the chute. Throw one lasso around the horns of the steer. Then the other cowboy throws a loop around the back legs of the now spinning and angry calf. There is a lot going on in this event and I didn’t do too well capturing it.
Two horses, two cowboys, two horns, two loops, too much? Then try tie down roping. Just you, your horse, a big loop of rope, a little loop of rope and a calf. Much simpler: lasso the calf, jump off your horse, throw the calf to the ground, use the little rope to bind the calf’s legs, raise your hands up to stop the clock. Yes this is a timed event. And you might be getting the idea that the horses are maybe more important than the cowboys.
And if you think this is a cowBOY only day you would be mighty wrong there fella. The barrel racing is an all cowgirl event involving 3 large empty barrels, one large horse and the ability to get around all 3 in the quickest possible time. Oh and you have to do it in a cloverleaf fashion. Knock over a barrel and get time added as a penalty. Can you stay on a horse that just went to 0 mph from a full run in 2 of your steps? Didn’t think so.
And that my vaqueros is a taste of Slack Day. Maybe next year we’ll pony up for a performance and get some saddle broncs and bull riding images. Yeehaw. And with that thought: TIME!