Ranch Kids Come to Town
Ranch kids, in general, live isolated lives. Unless they’re a junior rodeo family, the chances—especially once the spring works are through—to be around their peers are few and far between.
That’s why when their families come to town for a ranch rodeo, kid watching can be just as entertaining as the action in the arena.
Kids fall into about four categories at a ranch rodeo—mostly delineated by age. The youngest set—babies and toddlers—are usually found near their mother’s side. If they’re not, they’re building up their immune system by crawling underfoot on the bleachers. It seems these babies have adapted to a rough-and-tumble life, not throwing too many fits, and able to entertain themselves.
Next, kids move into what might be most easily labeled the playground phase. Fortunately for them, nearly every fairground in the West doubles easily as a giant sandbox. You’ll see these kiddos running horses, cattle, trucks, trailers, tractors, and elaborate irrigation systems in the dirt directly underneath and around the bleachers where their mothers are sitting. They don’t stray too far from where mom is, but sometimes they clamber up for a ride ahorseback with dad between events.
After they graduate from the playground phase, they move into the ropes, guns, and puppies stage. This is where the boys and girls tend to sort themselves apart. The little girls hook a leash to the puppies they got for Christmas and drag each other around, rolling their eyes at the stupid stunts the boys are pulling off. Those stunts include, but are not limited to, endless, wide-ranging running reenactments of the OK Corral shootout. When they holster their pistols, they shake down their ropes and begin roping the dummy, roping each other, roping each other on bicycles, roping their sisters, roping their sisters’ puppies and roping any stray dog that might wander through. On the boy side of this divide, there’s at least one squabble.
The final phase kids go through before becoming de facto adults is the wandering phase. The boys might or might not have a rope in their hands. The girls might or might not have a puppy in theirs. Often, the big sisters are helping mom with little ones. If there’s a trade show, both genders enter the shopping/swapping mode. The boys tend to trade each others’ junk tack back and forth while the girls hang in the ranch wife boutique shops. Some of the kids from each gender have their own handcrafted leather, tie-strings, beadwork, etc. they’re selling to the adults.
What sets these ranch rodeo kids apart is their confidence. These kids have no hesitation walking up to adults they haven’t seen since the last ranch rodeo to visit. And the adults foster that by buying the kids’ goods, showing them how to swing that rope, or dusting the little ones off when they have a spill in the playground.
It’s a tight-knit group and at most ranch rodeos, everyone knows these kids, so they feel like they know everyone right back. There’s a true sense of community that’s completely organic. The kids are given a safe place to grow up, play, and start to figure out who they are. They’re also given a place where they can make mistakes—whether it be getting into a fight or making a bad trade—and still have plenty of adult supervision to help them process through the missteps. Not a bad way to grow up.