Girls of the Rodeo!

I think it was the horse that did it. I got my first one when I was three, and she arrived with red boots and a red hat for me to wear when I rode her. Later in my childhood it was dinners with Dottie West and Merle Haggard. I saw Elvis in his white leather and was at the Hickory House eating a bar-be-que sandwich when he died. But it was dinner with Willie Nelson when he gave me his hat and sang "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" that put me over the edge.

And I still am. I absolutely love everything about horses and rodeos and country music. There is nothing like a big, beautiful horse and a bad country song and a bar-be-que sandwich to make me happy. I love beat in blue jeans and boots that have kicked too much mud and belt buckles the size of Texas. And I love a good rodeo.

There's not much inexpensive to do in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but not only did I find the most inexpensive entertainment, I found the best entertainment: the Jackson Hole Rodeo.

They've got beautiful horses, fearless cowboys, mean bulls, and loud country music. And they've got cowgirls. Both kinds: the Beauty Queens and the Calf Roping Cowgirls of the great West.

I had never really given thought to two different kinds of cowgirls, but on the night I went to the Jackson Hole Rodeo, it was the Anniversary of Miss Jackson Hole Rodeo and I got to see thirty years of Rodeo Beauty Queens. ...A lot can happen in thirty years...in many facets. The Queens of the 70's and 80's must have won if they could ride the fastest around the ring while waving and smiling because they tore in the ring wearing blue jeans and summer straw hats and rode like somebody put a cattle prod in the horses rears. They waved and smiled like Energizer bunnines. Somebody needs to tell those women they can relax now. And then came Miss Jackson Hole, Wyoming 2008. We needed sunglasses at night. She glowed in Caribbean blue satin and white leather chaps with cascades of blonde curls. And she didn't ride fast. We thought her very talented because she managed to smile and wave and ride while also managing to hold an American flag that was larger than her horse. It was a very entertaining pagent with all the activity and beauty in the middle of the ring.

After the Queens rode around and around and around and we sang with music on the loudspeakers, we finally got down to business with the start of the rodeo and out came the other cowgirls: the Calf Roping Cowgirls. These are the daughters of ranchers, the sisters of cowboys; the girls who rode before they walked and can rope a flea off the back of a calf. They are fast as lightening and can ride with the best cowboys. And they don't look bad doing it. They've got long locks and dangle earrings underneath their hats, and their jeans are broken in and their boots are worn with age. But they don't wave. And they don't smile. Not even if they win. These Cowgirls are tough and they're there to win prize money.

I wondered what goes on behind the rodeo with all the cowgirls. Do the Queens and the Calf-Ropers get along? I'm sure there have been some fairly spectacular fights over more than a few cowboys and probably more than one horse knows how to kick on demand.

But then again, as the night went on, I looked around the ring and sitting along the edge were cowboys and beauty queens and cattle handlers and cowgirls. Fathers and mothers and sons and daughters. All were there to have a good time, even if they didn't win a beauty contest or a blue ribbon. They were just glad to be at another rodeo on another summer night with a lot of good entertainment.

And I was glad to be reminded that we're not so different after all: Beauty Queens, Calf-Ropers, Mother, Daughters, Sisters. The Girls of the Rodeo of Life.