Читать книгу Spunky Horses (Part One) - A Year With The Horses - Vaughn Bolder - Страница 2

On another event, this time on a horse farm in England, I was working on a 'Wild West' themed party, where one of the activities to entertain the guests was a rodeo. Rodeo, however, wasn't really the done thing in England at the time, and as a result there was a distinct lack of rodeo teams and trained rodeo animals available there.

So to get around this little issue the organizers had hired an American rodeo team to bring all their horses, bulls, riders and equipment to England for the event. Luckily for the organizers they didn't have to fly them all the way from America as they'd found some a bit closer to home. They'd gone to Germany and recruited a team of touring rodeo riders and trucked over all the horses and kit they were using for their rodeo tours and displays around Germany.

In the days leading up to the party, as we built a nightclub in a barn and lit up the landscape, they arrived with their trucks and animals and built themselves a temporary ranch. They made their camp in amongst the stacks of hay and straw in another big barn where they slept at night alongside their horses. With the farm now themed for the event too, it was like a scene from the movies, except it was almost the real deal and these guys were all hardened cowboys and cowgirls from ranch land America.

During the event things were going swimmingly, and one by one the rodeo riders were taking their turns trying to stay on their wildly bucking rodeo bulls and broncos for as long as they could hold on. The rest of the cowboys and cowgirls, meanwhile, rode their horses around the temporary arena they'd built for the show, showing off their cattle ranching tricks and skills, while standing by to lasso and corral the bucking animals when each one had managed to eject its rider from its back.

The party goers were lapping all this up, as were all us crew, and then, suddenly and unexpectedly, things got a little out of hand. It began as a normal part of the show as all the cowboys rushed to try and save the cowboy who had apparently got himself in trouble when the bull had been too strong, ejected him and then trapped him in a corner. And then the bull started causing mayhem in the arena and running rings around all the rescuing cowboys.

Up to this point it had all still been part of the act, but then the bull really did manage to break free and somehow find his way through the cattle fencing and then get himself wedged underneath the temporary event seating stands. He then had a very good go at trying to get out the other side by attempting to literally bulldoze his way through the supporting structure of the seating stands. Now the cowboys had no choice but to get under there too to try and save the day. The guests at this stage were all sitting on their seats still enjoying the show and probably wondering where the bull had gone, until, that is, they could hear and feel the bull's attempts to shift the structure they were sitting on.

By now, a few of the cowboys had got under the structure and had somehow managed to rope and drag this massive bull back out the way he came in. After getting the bull safely corralled and re-securing the cattle fence they went back into the arena again and finished their show as if it was just a normal day at the office. They were at the party later, which was themed like a barn dance, and they had a great time showing all the guests how real cowboys and cowgirls do things. And at the end of the night they slept in the barn as planned with their horses.

This kind of wild living definitely had some appeal and doing special events for a living was already pretty wild in itself. At that time my own western ranch style horse adventures were just a dream, but they would come true a few years later after I'd done one of my regular tricks and answered an advert for something I wanted to have a go at and then managed to blag my way in.