Growing up in San Luis Obispo County, I remember Poly Royal when that’s what it was called. Somewhere around 5th grade, our class took a school bus and did a tour during the event at Cal Poly. I remember drinking Cal Poly chocolate milk, seeing some ag-related things, and visiting Kennedy Library.

The event has since been rebranded Open House, but there is still one thing that’s called Poly Royal — the Rodeo.

You’d have thought I might have been to a Cal Poly rodeo in the 25-30 years I’ve lived on the Central Coast. You would be wrong. Saturday night, I experienced it for the first time, lens-in-hand.

Here are some takeaways from someone who knows very little about the sport itself.

I know it’s cliche, but these competitors are tough

I don’t know the kind of courage it would take to jump off a galloping horse onto the back of a cow with horns and then wrestle said cow straight to the ground, but it’s a feat unto itself.

The guys who do it at the rodeo execute the move with timing and strength and agility, and without much protection. Steer wrestling was one of the first events on Saturday night and I was impressed right away.

Ropin’ ain’t easy

I grew up by the beach in Cayucos, but lots of the kids I went to high school with had ranches out in the hills. I got to have some fun trying to rope targets that were standing still. Even after practicing for most of an afternoon, I felt pretty good getting 1/10, and probably still would.

In events like calf roping, breakaway roping, and team roping, competitors are roping an animal that is moving from the back of another moving animal.

In the clip above Scotty uses “whilst riding a horse” to demonstrate how difficult something could be. Yep. It’s hard.

More often than (k)not though (see what I did there?), the lasso in the rodeo finds its target.

Riders are skilled for sure, but their horses are as impressive, if not more so. To me, all of the really well-trained horses were kind of the stars of the night.

Rough Stock

I saw the horse roughstock competition, but missed the bulls. That’ll be a goal for next year. By Owen Main

This is probably what you think of most when you think of a rodeo. Men, and sometimes women, put themselves to the test and try not to get bucked off of horses and bulls.

The bull-riding would be the most dangerous of these events. Unfortunately, I had already taken about 2,400 photos and had a cold coming on (it’s in full-swing now), so I left before the bull-riding.

Believe me, I’m sorry I missed the bull riding. I might be even more sorry I missed the bull dressing event.

There were about 10 teams of three participants — many of whom were altered in some way — ready to try something kind of like this:

These ladies kind of know what they’re doing, but the Cal Poly students I saw getting ready had ZERO clue what they were in for. That’s also something I wish I’d have stayed for.

There are lots of YouTube videos of Steer Dressing.

Final Verdict

The events went quickly enough that I never really got bored — probably a byproduct of a well-run rodeo. Going to the rodeo was a fun thing to do. I can imagine my 18 month old daughter enjoying it in a few years and my 3 year old nephew really having a great time as well.

Bonus

I guess it’s a win if you don’t fall off, right? By Owen Main

As I was getting ready to leave, I saw a flash of red hair under a San Francisco Giants cap atop a 6′ 6″ student. Anthony Silvestri, a senior on Cal Poly basketball team this past year is apparently enrolled in an introduction to rodeo class. About 12 students from the class had a chance to ride a bull. Having followed the hoops team, I definitely wasn’t going to miss it.

Ant did good work, which is to say, he didn’t get bucked off. His bull got about 10 feet out of the gate and started to spin on him. When it was stopped spinning, Anthony stepped off, shoved it away from him like he was battling for a rebound, and stepped away, victorious.

Photos by Owen Main – To buy or view any of the photos on an iPhone or iPad (over 400 of them), click here.