Smells of manure mixed with hints of jalapenos and nachos filled Parker Coliseum this weekend at the annual Block and Bridle Club All-Student Rodeo.
The smells might be a stomach-churning combination, but they are familiar scents at rodeos. These events trigger feelings of nervousness and excitement for rodeo participants and spectators.
Pamela Netterville, an environmental management systems junior and Block and Bridle Club member, was one of the nervous and excited contestants who just couldn’t seem to get enough of this “thing called rodeo.”
“There’s a lot of anticipation,” Netterville said as she waited for her barrel racing and goat tying contests.
Netterville is the 2002-2003 Rodeo Queen, a position she won by excelling in an interview process and a horsemanship contest. In horsemanship, queen contestants must ride their horses along a pattern.
Wearing a black cowboy hat decorated with a tiara, Netterville thought about her favorite part of the rodeo. She said it is feeling “butterflies” in her stomach.
“My horse is calm as can be,” she said about waiting in the narrow holding pen before running her equine into the arena. “Then we get in the alleyway and he just gets excited, too.”
The rodeo started Thursday and went through Saturday. Attendees paid admission and participants paid fees for each contest.
Members of the Block and Bridle Club each year choose a charity to donate 10 percent of the rodeo proceeds to.
This year they chose Special Olympics, an international organization “dedicated to empowering individuals with mental retardation to become physically fit, productive and respected members of society through sports training and competition,” according to the Special Olympics Web site.
Netterville said club members will probably give Special Olympics about $1,000. Final counts for rodeo proceeds were not in by press time.
Special Olympics “touches”the hearts of Brock and Bridle Club members, Netterville told The Reveille in a Nov. 13 story.
“We helped with Special Olympics last year, and someone said everybody thinks [it] has a lot of money,” she said. “But they’re really underfunded.”
With the national anthem sung and the colors presented by the Greenwell Springs Youth Riders, the announcer hollered it was time for “RODEO!”
Songs like Clint Black’s version of The Eagles’ “Desperado” and AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” blared as University students tried their luck on the backs of bucking bulls.
Beau Fiegel, a political science freshman, had said he was “freaked out” because he was planning on riding a bull.
But Fiegel was all smiles Friday night as he waited to see if his 5.5-second ride would place him in Saturday’s finals.
“I’ve found a new passion,” he said.
The All-Student Rodeo is a way to introduce previously inexperienced students like Fiegel to country-fun events like bull riding, bareback riding, and calf roping as well as other parts of the rodeo atmosphere.
Spencer Alexander, a construction management senior, grew up in Houston. The self-proclaimed “city boy” was decked out in full cowboy attire including the usual wide-brim hat, a CD-size belt buckle, slim-fitting jeans and boots.
“I’m usually in basketball shorts, a T-shirt and flip-flops,” he said.
Alexander spent a total of 2.1 seconds on a bull named Twister during his first-ever ride.
The coveted time for any bull rider is 8 seconds. If riders reach the 8-second mark, they are awarded scores.
Scores can be up to 100 points and are based on riders’ ability and the difficulty of the bulls they ride.
Netterville said two or three riders held on for 8 seconds Friday, but no one could reach the scoring mark Saturday.
“I think the bulls were freshened up Saturday,” she said.
This year’s bull-riding competitors included brother and sister Cole and Crystal Permenter.
Crystal, a marketing junior, rode for 7.92 seconds at the 2002 rodeo. Her bull bucked her more quickly this year — in 1.89 seconds.
“I’m not happy at all,” she said. “That was horrible.”
Crystal said she was more nervous in the previous rodeo, and nervousness is helpful.
She said she was “more focused” the previous time she rode a bull.
Cole, an undecided freshman, rode his first bull Friday night. He stayed on Hurricane for 5.15 seconds.
“I was more nervous I wouldn’t do better than Crystal,” he said in competitive sprit about his sister.
But Cole was not merely an antagonistic younger brother.
“I wish she would’ve done better,” he said.
Goat chasing for women and wild-cow milking for men — in which contestants must lasso a cow and pull a hair out of its tail — were two other events that set off hoots and hollers from spectators and participants and a “moos” and “baas” from livestock.
Judges crowned Beth Peterson, a nutrition, food and culinary sciences freshman, this year’s Rodeo Queen and All-Around Cowgirl
All-Around Cowgirl and All-Around Cowboy awards go to the woman and man with the highest combined scores in various rodeo contests.
Hoyt Ponder, a vocational education graduate student, won the All-Around Cowboy contest.
Saturday’s events also included the Block and Bridle Club’s third annual Kids Fun Day. This event included games and a petting zoo.