Summer Fun at The Beaver Creek Rodeo

My kids were convulsing with laughter. We were at a rodeo on a cool, Colorado mountain night and a big ornery bull was misbehaving. Circling the arena, the bull avoided the cowboys trying to lead him back to his stall. Instead, he was bucking and jiving, kicking and snorting and doing all those bad bull things. Then the rodeo clown let him have it.

“Hey bull,” he yelled. “Did you know your mama is a cow and your sister is a heifer?”

The crowd roared.

Cowboys and Greenhorns

Bull riding was the last event of the night at the Beaver Creek rodeo and we were primed after a hour or so of good old-fashioned entertainment. The evening’s first event was Bronc Busting, where cowboys try to ride an impossibly agile horse for 8 seconds. No cowboy stayed on, but the event got the crowd warmed up.

Colorado has a summer rodeo for every cowboy, cowgirl. Saddle up.

It’s not that the Wild West doesn’t exist any longer — it just doesn’t come to town that often.

But rodeo season is upon us, bringing with it a chance to see the way entertainment has always been done in the West.

“The way I look at it, rodeo is a family event that is fun to watch and brings us back to the Old West,” said Chuck Colletti, president of the Colorado Pro Rodeo Association. “We get to go back to our roots, to the cowboy days.”

And here in Colorado we know how to cowboy up.

At the Rodeo…

A strong sense of self is an essential preparation for the many obstacles our children will face in their lifetimes. It sparks the development of strong leadership skills and the ability to make a positive impact in other’s lives. I want more than anything for my children to feel abundantly loved and confident so that when they encounter others, the overflow of their hearts can pour out the goodness within.

So what does a strong sense of self have to do with a county fair? Plenty.