Nikki Yeager

It's not Texas without a little rodeo in your day and it's not a vacation without Mutton races, bull riding and lots of cowboy butts to look at. 

Which is exactly why my mom and I hit the rodeo the day I landed in Houston. We ate enough chips and salsa to stuff a large pinata, crammed a few chimicangas down our throats and then walked a block to Reliant Center where all the cowboys were practicing lasso swings above their heads and all the sheep (AKA mutton) ran around in circles. 

Before long we were watching cowboys tackle 800lb steer by jumping from horses' backs and bull fighters jump in the path of bulls' horns, barely saving the life of a fallen bull rider.  

Before I go on, let's just note the fact that those boys are no New York men. They live on ranches, can take a cattle horn to the gut any day and barely grimace at a ripped ACL. They have the stoic look of any man who's known tough country life and they've killed their own friends (you know, cows and chickens and what not) for food. Cowboys can take down an animal four times their weight and ride a bull without a trace of fear. Ask them to do a task most New Yorkers would cry about and they'll do it steely faced and calm. In their world, you just do what you need to do.

Oh, and did I mention they rode to Houston on horses and carriages - for real-!?

What an odd state this is. 

Anyways, to break the tension in the regular events the Rodeo has Mutton Races before the big concert at the end. The mutton are sheep (but sheep didn't sound exotic enough so they tossed the name aside) and the riders are [literally] 5 and 6 year old kids. Little toddlers. 

So the rodeo clowns pick the toddlers up and sit them on the mutton backs while the tots hold on for dear life. Then the mutton run to the other side of the pen and whichever kid can hold on to the mutton fur with their little baby hands for the longest wins. 

My mom and I watched as little boys and little girls mounted their mutton and flew off halfway down the pen. We giggled with the crowd when the children were toseed aside and ran away crying (oh how funny crying children seem at a rodeo!) and then, when the one little boy held on all the way to the other side we jumped and cheered and screamed his praises. No wonder cowboys grow up to be tough as nails.

Never mind the fact that anywhere else in the country it'd be considered child abuse... 

Anyways, the thing about sheep is... well... they're stupid. And I don't mean that in the derogatory sense. I mean, quite literally, sheep are dumb as bricks. The way they got the mutton to run while the children held on with all their might was simple. Tie one sheep to the other end of the pen and all the other sheep will urgently sprint to the first individual, making an instant Flock 'o' Sheep. If the first sheep moves, all the others follow. If the first sheep runs into a wall and then stands there staring at it, all the other will follow (and yes, this did happen when they were herding the sheep). 

Oh, silly sheepies! You goofy mutton and your flocking instincts! 

Overall, great day at the rodeo.