National Finals Rodeo

Baker Ranches Mountain Valley Hay goes to lots of places. It gets trucked to dairy farms in California, Olympic horses in Florida, Cal-Ranch stores across the Southwest, and the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas.

Hay comes in different varieties. A lot of it is alfalfa hay. Alfalfa is a perennial crop that we usually harvest four times a year. Every few years it needs to be switched out with a different crop to keep the soil healthy. We also grow orchard grass, oat, and small grains hay. 

Bales come in different sizes. The bale in the photo below weighs 1,400 pounds. Heavy equipment is needed to move it. Some folks, particularly horse owners, want smaller bales, so we do a lot of 100-pound bales (3-string) and 60-pound (2-string) bales

This hay is tasty. Even the deer agree. :)

For quite a few years, Baker Ranches has provided National Finals Rodeo (NFR) with the hay for the animals there. NFR takes place in early December and is 10 days long. The top 15 competitors in the world in bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, barrel racing, steer tying, and bull riding come and do their event every night for 10 nights. The top 6 get money every night, and they keep an overall standings. 

This is a sport that requires a lot of animals, and those animals get hungry. Baker Ranches takes about 85 tons of hay to the NFR each year. This amounts to about 4 truckloads, but usually there's an extra truck load to get the squeeze (equipment to unload hay) down there plus sometimes an emergency load.

I've never been a rodeo groupie, but I do enjoy going to the rodeo. (Here's a post from a 2010 rodeo my nephew was in.) We even had our kids compete in Mutton Bustin' and Calf Riding one year. That convinced them that rodeo was not their future.

This past summer, we went to the Ute Stampede Rodeo in Nephi, Utah, and I really enjoyed it (and apparently didn't get around to blogging about it). I mentioned to my husband that I wouldn't mind going to the NFR.

Well, we had the opportunity to go, so we jumped on it. It was a fun experience!

We had a nearby hotel so we walked to the Thomas Mackey Stadium, but we ended up at a side entrance and got to go past lots and lots of horse stalls. Eventually we found the front and were able to pick up our tickets at Will Call.

Then we went inside, and it was packed with people getting souvenirs and eating and drinking. We found our seats, nice ones on the second row of the balcony.

The evening officially started with an invocation and the national anthem.

Then there were fireworks.

And a parade of athletes. Texas and Oklahoma had especially big contingents. Canada has quite a few, and there's even one from Brazil.

Then it was on to the events, with Bareback Riding first. I was impressed by how streamlined everything was. They got the athletes out quickly.

Then it was time for steer wrestling. The chute was on our end of the arena.

Then came team roping.

And saddle bronc. 

The Wrights from Milford, UT, not too far from where we live, have really made a name for themselves with saddle bronc riding, with several world champions. 

The big screen showed some of the preparations.

Then it was time to go! We also saw Stetson Wright do bull riding at the end.

Then it was time for brother Ryder Wright from nearby Beaver, UT.

The Calf Tying went off without a hitch (lol, sorry, I had to be corny with a pun). 

Next it was time to prep for the barrel racing, so why not make a production of it! The arena is now mostly full, a contrast from when the rodeo started.

Desert Girl loves horses and competed in barrel racing at her 4-H horsemanship contest, so was particularly interested.

These riders are so good.

The final event was bull riding. Unlike the other events, when most everyone succeeded in their events, bull riding only had a handful manage a successful ride. 

It's kind of terrifying to watch.

What an evening! We had a terrific time.

Later I learned that there are lots of viewing parties at the casinos, with thousands more watching. Plus the rodeo goes out over the Cowboy Channel where so many more watch it. 

We've caught some of the highlights on YouTube. I don't think this will be the last of our rodeos, it's a strangely compelling sport to watch, even if you don't do it yourself and never will.