🚀 go-pugleaf

amanda toering (mandabob@bga.com) wrote:


: I'm DYING to know what mutton busting is.

Mutton busting was this hilarious rodeo wannabe contest for little kids.  
A whole bunch of little ones, many of them wearing complete cowboy 
outfits (cute as bugs!), get on the back of a mutton (older lamb - a 
sheep) and ride that lamb chop just as a cowboy rides a buckin' bronco.  
The kids come flying off the sheep after a few seconds.  But, remember, 
the sheep are low to the ground and so are the kids (they're 4 or 5 years 
old or so), so the kids just get dusty.  Not that they don't cry, but 
that's to be expected.  The kid who stays on the sheep longest is the 
winner although I think all the kids got something for participating. 

The stands are filled with proud family members and others.  There was 
one little girl whose mom decided to pull her from the competition.  The 
girl didn't want to go.  The announcer lets us all know what's going on.  
The audience started shouting, "Let her ride, let her ride."  Kids 
wearing cool outfits are applauded as well.  This was worth the price of 
admission in itself.

I don't know what could be more celebratory of a lifestyle than this 
junior riding competition.  Children who grew up, and still grow up, on 
cattle ranches, learned to ride horses before they were five.  I've seen 
8 year olds practicing steer roping on calves.  We really missed the 
mutton busting.

-- 
Yours,
Susan
_____________________________________________________________________________
Susan Hattie Steinsapir       hattie@netcom.com        Sacramento, California