Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo

Everything is humongous at the Houston Rodeo, which started on the weekend with the 2-hour-parade and the BBQ Cook-off. We returned from the Bay Area on Tuesday in the late morning, which was the first day (of 20! in total) of the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo. Spent all afternoon on the fairgrounds (overview on the pic) and it took us time to get oriented, long distances inbetween arenas and stages and other places, and, packed with people. In the evening we had tickets for the rodeo and the Garth Brooks concert in the NCR Stadium (pics further below) and had great seats behind the rodeo chutes.

I have talked about the huge carnival with rides and other entertainment on the fairgrounds before, now it was even bigger (pic), and, there were additional kid's events and competitions like mutton bustin' (riding on a sheep) - lots of fun for the adventurous boys and girls age 5-6!

Besides the huge football/concert stadium there are two other big venues: the NRG Horseshow Arena, mainly for horse events like cutting, and the NRG Center for livestock, mainly cattle, and in both arenas and in between vendors/exhibitors and foodstands and educational exhibitions. Huge!!!

Different from what we had expected, it was much more about livestock and entertainment and education than about horses and rodeo. There are concerts of famous bands - like Garth Brooks, Brett Paisley, Blake Shelton or One Republic - every evening on a fancy new movable, spaceship-like stage, used for the first time this year.



Before each concert starts in the huge NRG Stadium, with a capacity of about 75,000 seats - usually used for NFL Football (Houston Texans) -, there is first a "Great Entry" (pic on top, left) of celebrities, selected groups, committee members on horseback and in carriages, followed by 1,5 hours of rodeo competitions in all disciplines in different rounds: tie-down roping, bareback and saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling, bullriding, barrel racing, team roping.


We watched quite a bit of the cutting events in the smaller horse show arena (pics below), mostly amateur and non-pro, but with rather high prize money on both days,and, we checked out hatmakers, leatherwork and other merchandise around the arena.





The "cattle hall" was huge, cows lined up corresponding to their breeds (Brahmans and a Texas Longhorn on the photos below), and visitors were able to walk around to check them out. On a rink in the center of the arena the animals were shown by their owners, the breeders, or rather by their kids usually, and judged and prizes were awarded. That's going on for days in different categories and for different breeds of cattle, and, lateron, sheep and pigs, too. Animals are really pampered and are going to the "beauty shop" before they are presented. The sheep on the pic gets a hair-dry before being presented to the judges.


There are educational speeches, presentations and exhibitions about wildlife, nature preservation, food production, etc. in the same hall, and besides knick-knack, home accessoires, clothing, horse tack, artwork, saddles, boots, jewelry, etc., there are tractors and cars - like the F 150 (Ford pickup truck) in all its variations (Peter's future car,,,) - and mattresses (how well fitting for hard-working cowboys!)

Wednesday was military appreciation day, and therefore soldiers got a day off and were especially honored on the outdoors stage, where the U.S. Marine Corps Band New Orleans was performing (pic). Also, the official oath of the new recruits (a couple of hundred young people!) took place and veterans from all over Texas were present. Also, committee members were honored and made speeches. Amazing fact in Houston is, that in total 33,000 volunteers are involved in the organisation of the event. They take days off from their regular jobs (unpaid!) and work there for free.