A Paniolo Experience

Our fabulous friend Michelle flew over for Labor Day weekend as our first ever guest! So of course, she got off the plane and I was ready to run her ragged :)

We promptly packed up her swanky Mustang convertible rental and headed up to Waimea for some good ole rodeo fun times! Oh, you didn't know there were rodeos in Hawai'i??? Well, in FACT we have a cattle ranchin', horse ridin', rodeo loving cowboy (we call 'em paniolos) culture right here on the Big Island!!!

We arrived at Parker Ranch (Samuel Parker was originally from Massachusetts! Wicked cool!) and promptly headed to the rodeo ring. The rodeo would introduce us paniolo novices to a wide range of strangely interesting new experiences.

We started with an event called "Calf Mugging." Upon watching calf mugging, I can say that it seems to be an oddly, but appropriately named event. First, a cowboy on a horse chases down a calf and ropes it. Then his partner comes running in from the sidelines to tackle this poor calf.

COWBOY CHASING THE CALF

After tackling the calf to the ground, his partner jumps down from his horse, runs over and trusses up at least 3 of the calf's 4 legs.

TYING UP A CALF

Then it was intermission. Just like at a hockey game where a Zamboni comes out to smooth the ice, they had...

A TRACTOR OF COURSE...

We watched events like Wahine ("Women")/Keiki ("Childen") Barrel Racing while we waited for something curiously named on the program as "Mutton Busting."

WAHINE BARREL RACE

As we quickly learned, Mutton Busting, was like bull-riding for children!

YES, THAT IS A CHILD ON A SHEEP

Sometimes the sheep were nice and docile...

But more often than not, mutton busting was an accurate replica of bull-riding!!!

The keiki events were very popular. Another keiki event was a "Calf Scramble," where a horde of tiny children chase a terrified calf and attempt to rope it. And they let little toddlers at it!

CHILDREN CHASING A CALF

We also saw some impressive team roping...

TEAM ROPING

But we were really waiting for the highlight of any rodeo....BULL RIDING!

Of COURSE I took some video bull-riding!

At the end of the video clip you might notice a judge getting tossed by the bull. When I saw that happen, I reactively stopped filming, but what happened next was the bull continued to ram and grind that poor man into the fence and ground. An ambulance had to come to get the guy. We all hope he's ok! Who would've thought we'd see something like that at our first rodeo?!?!

The sign as we leave the ranch just says it all...

WHOA!