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This guy didn't fare so well at the Cowtown Coliseum.
The bullfighters are always right in there helping get the
cowboy out of harm's way and distracting the bull so the
rider can get to the fence after his ride. |
Mike Lee. If any of you reading this are bull riding fans, then you probably recognize this name immediately as belonging to the 2004 World Champion who is still one of the top bull riders in the
PBR. Mike’s been a friend of ours for about a year and a half now. When we went to the PBR event in
Springfield, MO, Mom told him we were coming down to Texas after Missouri. Mike kindly invited us to come stay at his family's ranch in the
Fort Worth area when we did.
So, after driving about nine hours and making one overnight stop, we finally made it! Mr. Dennis Lee, Mike’s dad, came out to meet us at the gate, and after shaking hands we followed him down the long winding driveway to their RV hookups. I could tell this was going to be great, and we hadn’t even parked yet! Mr. Lee and Mike helped us get the camper set up and then we talked for a while and walked around the horse corrals. All the horses that they have are being trained as
cutting horses (horses used for separating herds of cattle). It was amazing getting to watch them train the horses in their big arena with a thick sandy bottom.
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Here's Mr. Lee getting one of their horses saddled up to
go train in the arena. |
We went with Mike to the New Year’s Eve PBR event at the
Cowtown Coliseum that weekend in Fort Worth. It was a lot of fun and it was amazing learning some of the long rodeo history of the Coliseum. That week I mainly helped do chores around the ranch which included: feeding the beef cattle about 2 ½ tons of grain mix every couple days, giving hay to all the horses a couple times per day, moving hay bales around with the skid-steer, saddling and unsaddling horses, and cleaning stalls while the horses were being trained.
Whenever the cattle ran out of feed we would hook up the trailer to the tractor and pull it up alongside the feed troughs. After we filled the ones next to the trailer I would run up and drive the tractor and trailer back to the next empty ones. I thought that I’d figured out the quickest way, and would run along the top of the trough to get up to the tractor. I kept thinking, “Boy, if I trip, this is going to be ugly.” Well, guess what happened when Mike and I were unloading the trailer one time; I tripped! Luckily, it was at the very end of the trough so I didn’t hit my head. Instead, I fell off and landed face-first into the cow poop/mud mixture. Right after that Mike slipped and hit his face on the shovel handle. We were just having it rough that day, I guess! (ha ha)
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Here's me plowing near the horse corrals. I have the
arms up high like that so on corners I can get closeer
to the fence before turning. |
The next week Mike and Mr. Lee showed me how to start plowing the fields to prepare them for planting later this Spring. I used their 75hp
Mahindra 4WD tractor pulling a 10 foot (I think)
chisel plow. Mike was driving the tractor showing me the boundaries of where they wanted plowed, while I stood on the step on the side of the tractor. He was driving and then without saying anything, he just jumped off! We both laughed as I scrambled to get in the tractor so I could drive it, since nobody was in the seat anymore! That tractor sure had to work hard to keep traction going up some hill in the sandy Texas soil. It was great learning how to plow; I’ve done a lot of work with tractors before, but never any plowing. There’s an old homestead with a couple barns near the front of the property that I had to plow around. When I did, the plow dragged up quite a bit of old metal, pipe, and brick that must’ve been from another building (maybe a house) that used to be there also.
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That's me on Black Plague. (ha ha) She did pretty good to
have all fours off the ground! Contrary to what you might
think, that is NOT a calf I'm riding... |
Before we went to the ranch I had quite a few of my friends ask me, “You’re not going to ride any bulls, are you?” And I always replied with something like, “Oh, no. I’ll stick to riding horses and four-wheelers.” Well, that lasted about the first three weeks at the ranch. Mike and I were saddling up some horses to ride while Gabriel watched. Out of the blue, Mike told Gabriel that if he wanted to ride one of their cows, he could try it! Mom was a little nervous about it, so Mike said, “Well, I’ll put Cody on one first, if that’ll make you feel better.” Without realizing it, I had just been talked into trying bull riding! (ha ha) There’s a big pen with four bull chutes near the horse stalls that we’d do it in. After getting several cows into the alley, and bringing the rest of the family out to watch, Mike rode one to show us how it’s done. Of course, he made it look so easy!
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That's me opening the gate, Mike grinning ear to ear in the
background, and Dad just coming out of the chute! |
Next was my turn. The first cow was so excited that it got itself backwards in the chute, so we went to another one. Once he opened the gate it was a blast! I only rode for a few seconds, before falling off the right side. Mike said I did good, but fell off so early because I was leaning into it to the right too much. I looked down after I got up and realized that the cow had ripped the back off the left leg of my jeans! When we watched the video later, we saw that the cow’s sharp dew claw had done it when it kicked at me after I fell off. Next, Dad rode. His cow took off across the arena, bucking the whole way. Dad rode all the way across, and then the rope slipped up on the cow’s neck, making him fly off the front! He ended up with road rash up his nose and forehead, a huge swollen knee, and poop on his lip. Mike said he was really surprised how good Dad did on his first ride! Gabriel ended up not riding, after we saw what happened to Dad and I; which was just fine with Mom…
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This is Mrs. Steph and Mr. Dennis standing
by ol' Moe near the training arena. |
Mr. Lee’s wife, Mrs. Steph, is a professional horse chiropractor and knows a ton about horse nutrition and horse health in general. She took a lot of time showing me how to watch a horses’ eating habits and body to see what kind of grain and how much hay it needs. I learned that feeding them, and even giving water, is something that has to be thought through for each horse. They have a whole feed room with several kinds of grain and minerals that are given in different amounts to all the different horses of different age, gender, and build.
One evening I went with Mike to go to a smaller bull riding event so he could practice for the PBR that weekend. We ended up driving an hour and a half only to learn that the event had been canceled. Undaunted, Mike made a few phone calls and found another event about an hour the other way. We drove up to that one and Mike rode four times in the chilly outdoor arena, before heading home at about 10:30pm. It was a lot of fun and we sure had plenty of time to talk while we drove!
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Here's Mike and I moving some stuff around with the
skid-steer while Elisha, the horse, watches from behind. I'd
never driven a joystick controlled one until then; it was a lot
easier to handle than the other ones I've used before. |
Mr. Lee told me that him and Mike would teach me how to ride their cutting horses. I was excited to learn, because it’s really a special skill to know. They both spent a lot of time showing me how to ride high in the saddle, control the horses movements with my hips, and keep all tension off the reigns along with lots of other little things. It took hours and hours of riding in their arena, but finally I started getting the hang of it. I rode my buddy, Tomcat, every time and we worked together really well. I’m really glad they taught me how!
Mrs. Teri, Mike’s mom, who we’d met a couple times before, came over pretty often and we really enjoyed visiting with her. She’s the managing editor for
Quarter Horse News magazine, so it was very interesting talking to her about her job and writing. We went with her, Mr. Lee, Mrs. Steph, and Mike almost every time to their church. It was a great, and they let Hanna and I play music for their Bible studies on Tuesday evenings, which Mr. Lee leads.
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You know you're in Texas when there's a statue of Ronald
McDonald getting ready to do some calf-roping in front of
the restaraunt! |
Time fly’s when you’re having fun, and this was very true while we were at the ranch. Before we knew it, it was time to head out so we could go meet up with our grandma farther south in Texas. Being there was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done, and I’m really thankful that they all let us stay with them for so long and spent so much time teaching me things. There was a lot more stuff we did, people we met, and stories I could tell, but if I told everything it would end up being the size of a small book!
Before driving out, they told us to make sure and come back as soon as we can. I'm sure we will!
