BUSTIN’ MY BUTTONS

My wife, Danielle, was a rodeo queen as well as a rodeo champion. She won the prestigious National Cowgirl Rodeo Championship back in 1978. This was an all around event that included barrel racing, calf roping, and goat tying.

For those of you unfamiliar with rodeo events, in barrel racing, a competitor on horseback rides around a series of four barrels in a timed event, making tight turns around a barrel without touching it. Calf roping is also done from horseback. A rider used a rope to ensnare a running calf. Lastly and this is the crux of the story is about goat tying.

Danielle disliked goat tying. A goat would be tied to a long rope and her job was to ride her horse across an arena to where the goat was tied, jump off her horse, chase the goat, pick it up and tie three of its legs together, jump up and throw up her arms. The goat had to remain tied for at least eight seconds. This was also a timed event.

On one occasion, in a rodeo stadium filled with rodeo fans, she was assigned to a very large goat. She mounted her steed and raced across the arena and jumped from her horse. She managed to grab the goat but was having difficulty in getting the three feet together, due to the goat’s squirming and its size.

She was finally able to get the feet together and by throwing the rope in such a way as it wrapped itself around the feet of the goat while holding one end of the rope in her mouth, she successfully tied the goats feet. She immediately jumped up and spread her arms so the eight second countdown could commence.

Somehow, while tying the goat’s feet, one of its feet managed to make its way beneath her blouse. As she stood up in triumph and waving her arms, the goat’s leg managed to rip all of the buttons off her blouse, exposing her to the cheering crowd.

An embarrassing experience for her, one the crowd seemed to enjoy, and a lifetime of rodeo storytelling.