Country Music ain't so bad....
Jul. 17th, 2000 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cpolk...Though I can't say I'll ever be a fan. The Calgary Stampede is over for another year, and i went to "the chucks" as the locals say.. the final heat for $50,000. I've never seen chuckwagon races, but I figured it wouldn't be as bad as, say, rodeo.
I watched a horse die.
Okay, you, gentle reader, may know nothing about chuckwagon races. A chuckwagon race team is the chuckwagon and a team of four horses, but there's also a team of four men on horses known as outriders. Three outriders toss tent poles and a stove into the back of the chuckwagon, while one outrider holds the horse team and lets them go as the horn sounds. Then the chuckwagon and the outriders have to figure eight around two barrels and then race around the track going full tilt boogie, and the outriders have to be no more than a certain distance behind the wagon or else you get a one second penalty on your time for a.... late outrider. the run is done in about a minute and fifteen seconds. There are other penalties, but I won't bore you with the details.
Anyway, one outrider was going around the last curve when something bad happened and they fell. They both just lay there in the track, not moving, then there's a swarm of people galloping over on horses - a EMS team for the outrider and a veterinary team for the horse. The outrider was taken out on a stretcher, but he couldn't have been too bad because if it had been they would have got the helicopter out there pronto. (Pronto. Agh. All this cowboying is infecting my vocabulary.) But the horse... They got a big blue tarp and held it up. The horse got up, but fell down again immediately.
"That horse is dead," I said to Darcy. I knew they'd have to shoot him. I felt just terrible. Somebody in the row ahead of me said, "No, I saw the horse get up," but I think it might have been for the benefit of his kid or something....a little girl, probably as horse crazy as many girls are.
I don't know what to think. I mean, it's dangerous, of course. running full tilt, anything could happen. it's not like they're tying rpoes around their privates or yanking them down with ropes... they're running racing horses, and there are risks attached to that. But I felt just... my stomach flopped over when I saw them fall. I don't know if i want to go to the chucks again.
The Grandstand show after the races was lame, of course. Apparently they always are... the point is having good seats for fireworks. We didn't have good seats - we were too high up and the grandstand is roofed so they shot up over the roof. big fat hairy deal. They do a show with the fireworks, and that was pretty weird actually, because they started going on about the four elements and it was SO pagan and i'm thinking... uh... do the Christians know what they're watching?
So we got out of there and went to Nashville North. Fun! dancing! barbecue beef on a bun! BEER! Yay!
I watched a horse die.
Okay, you, gentle reader, may know nothing about chuckwagon races. A chuckwagon race team is the chuckwagon and a team of four horses, but there's also a team of four men on horses known as outriders. Three outriders toss tent poles and a stove into the back of the chuckwagon, while one outrider holds the horse team and lets them go as the horn sounds. Then the chuckwagon and the outriders have to figure eight around two barrels and then race around the track going full tilt boogie, and the outriders have to be no more than a certain distance behind the wagon or else you get a one second penalty on your time for a.... late outrider. the run is done in about a minute and fifteen seconds. There are other penalties, but I won't bore you with the details.
Anyway, one outrider was going around the last curve when something bad happened and they fell. They both just lay there in the track, not moving, then there's a swarm of people galloping over on horses - a EMS team for the outrider and a veterinary team for the horse. The outrider was taken out on a stretcher, but he couldn't have been too bad because if it had been they would have got the helicopter out there pronto. (Pronto. Agh. All this cowboying is infecting my vocabulary.) But the horse... They got a big blue tarp and held it up. The horse got up, but fell down again immediately.
"That horse is dead," I said to Darcy. I knew they'd have to shoot him. I felt just terrible. Somebody in the row ahead of me said, "No, I saw the horse get up," but I think it might have been for the benefit of his kid or something....a little girl, probably as horse crazy as many girls are.
I don't know what to think. I mean, it's dangerous, of course. running full tilt, anything could happen. it's not like they're tying rpoes around their privates or yanking them down with ropes... they're running racing horses, and there are risks attached to that. But I felt just... my stomach flopped over when I saw them fall. I don't know if i want to go to the chucks again.
The Grandstand show after the races was lame, of course. Apparently they always are... the point is having good seats for fireworks. We didn't have good seats - we were too high up and the grandstand is roofed so they shot up over the roof. big fat hairy deal. They do a show with the fireworks, and that was pretty weird actually, because they started going on about the four elements and it was SO pagan and i'm thinking... uh... do the Christians know what they're watching?
So we got out of there and went to Nashville North. Fun! dancing! barbecue beef on a bun! BEER! Yay!
