Bum steer

I seized the opportunity to get my rodeo fix this weekend and headed down to the Waikato rodeo at Kihikihi, try saying that after a few Waikato draughts! It was a scorching hot day as many have been of late, which meant everywhere was looking very brown and dusty. I could see my gear was going to need some tlc after this trip!

I checked out good shooting positions and noted that most of the other photogs were shooting from higher viewpoints. I felt getting down nice and low made the shots much more dramatic even if it did add to the dust problem.

Around one side of the arena was a double fence to keep the crowd nice and safe. So naturally I climbed over the first fence to stick my lens right in amongst the action at the closer fence. Which was working all very well and good until all of a sudden I heard thundering hooves! I thought 'that's strange, the steer in the arena I can see is currently in a headlock sooo…..'??? That's when I turned round and saw only a few metres away was a large pointy horned steer heading my way at a rate of knots! It would seem they use the channel between the two fences to get stock from one end of the arena to the other! Doh! Trying to not look totally terrified I rapidly leapt the outer fence and proceeded to try and look cool about it… judging by the laughter behind me it didn't work! 

The whole rodeo was fantastic and as per usual I cannot believe how tough the competitors are! The bull riders seemed to have a particularly rough time, with many limping away holding various parts looking rather broken. I think the heat may have been making the bulls even more ago than usual, with one or two very reluctant to leave the arena once hay had deposited their riders!

Above is my favorite sequence of shots that I captured. This bareback rider defied gravity and somehow lasted the distance on this bronco, truly amazing! My trusty 70-200mm caught most of the action at about 1/800th of a second before I had to dive back to avoid the worst of the cloud of dust and debri that followed him to the fence.

Mental note, next time plastic wrap my camera and fit a rear view mirror to spot incoming bovines!