Just Another Ride

Gazing at the faces in the crowd, I looked for the person for whom I deeply cared. There she sat, watching from the stands. She seemed like a tiny speck as the crowd engulfed her in the old, wooden, creaky chairs. All my senses stopped paying attention to the smells of rodeo food and the noise of a packed arena as I watched her.

A little smile crawled onto my face as I continued to watch. She sat with a group of our close acquaintances as the scene unfolded in front of her. She clapped and cheered, as did the rest of the devoted fans in the arena. With a quick glance to the middle of the showground, I noticed one of my competitors bowing towards his admiring fans.

“Now give John Keller another round of applause for that great ride on the wildest bronco so far, Cap,” said the announcer. The crowd went wild, screaming, cheering, anything to show their devotion to the rodeo and the rider.

I prepared myself for the ride of my life as I walked closer to the chute that caged an angry, wild black stallion.

“Next up is Danny Percell,” I heard as my name echoed through the arena. “He will be trying his luck on Attitude, a four-year-old black stallion. Now don’t forget your raffle tickets, just look for the kids in the purple hats and t-shirts. You have a chance to win a trip for two to Mexico that was graciously given to us by Travelers Are Us. Or a Sony Digital camera also given to us genially by Tom’s Electronic Shop. And of course there are many, many more prizes to be announced later.”

I listened to the announcer’s spiel. But just like every other ride, I became nervous, my heart pounding as fast as a cheetah on the run.

“This is Danny Percell’s first ride of the season. Now let’s cheer him on by giving him a warm welcome.” The announcer said as I stepped beside the wooden chute.

Checking out the entire crowd; I noticed a rainbow of colorful shirts, cowboy hats and blue jeans as I climbed up the new, wooden fence. Feeling the fresh soft wood on the fence, I thought about the rest of arena being aged and unbalanced.

I caught her grinning from ear to ear, as she watched me; I nodded to her and mounted the muscular animal. The sturdy horse was eager to go.

“Ready?” asked a fellow cowboy as he put a reassuring hand on my shoulder

I nodded confidently

“GO!” I heard another cowboy say with a bit of encouragement.

The wood gate opened up as if hell were allowing me to enter. Quickly shaking off that awful feeling, I flew into the ring on the horse’s back.

I focused so hard on staying on the huge creature that the crowd and noise disappeared into thin air. The seconds felt like hours as I held on for dear life.

‘We need the money, ‘ I thought as one second went by.

‘And a win under my belt would be nice my first ride.’ I considered as two seconds went by.

‘This win will get us by for a little bit until I get another construction job in town.’ I said reflecting as another two seconds passed by ever so slowly.

‘Plus, I have to do it for her.’ I thought as one seconds paced by.

The horse, this beautiful stallion tried to heave me off his back Bouncing, jumping, jarring, bucking was this horse’s job.

The sweat poured off me as I held on for dear life. The only thing I could smell out of the whole arena was the sweat of the horse. I focused even more on Attitude. Nothing, absolutely nothing entered my mind now other then staying on the horse. I followed his every move with my body as the horse, this striking stallion, tried to get me off his back.

Finally my time had ended, I leaped off the gigantic horse barely landing on my feet. One of the colorful clowns, a pickup man, came and helped me out of the ring as I came back to reality

All my senses came alive as I walked out of the ring. Onion rings, hamburgers, fries were the strongest food odors that tagged my sense of smell. The unpleasant odor from the ring, the sawdust, horse sweat and manure, came a close second to annoy my nose. My hearing was taking everything in after being out of commission for only a few seconds; people cheering clapping, horse stomping their hooves in excitement and making any other noises they could to get attention.

I smiled knowing that I did well on this ride.

I walked over to my beautiful, young daughter. She did not even notice me until I sat beside her and put my hand on her shoulder.

“Daddy.” She whispered as she gave me a hug. This hug was a tradition we have performed since the day I started taking her to the rodeos to watch me ride.

We watched and waited patiently as the last rider took his turn. After he had his turn on Cap, a clown tried to catch a small pig while wearing a pair of big, red, clumsy shoes that made the crowd laugh. Finally, after five minutes of watching the clown do his gig, the judges had made their hard decision.

I took her hand, which fit perfectly into mine as the last minute took days. The microphone cracked through the speakers as the announcer picked it up.

“Well now ya’ll are awaiting the decision of the winner of the biggest event of this rodeo, the bareback bronco riding. The judges of this event have made their extremely hard decision. The winner of this competition is…” the male announcer paused.

The whole arena went a deadly silent from the middle arena to the concession stand; everyone wanted to know the winner including myself.

The winner of the bronco riding is… Danny Percell! Congrat…”The announcer tried to finish his sentence.

My name echoed throughout the building as the crowd cheered in excitement.

‘I won,’ I thought as I stood up and smiled in great happiness.

I waved my black cowboy hat to the crowd in a thank you, which made them roar with louder clapping and cheering.

‘This money will get us through until another job at the construction site or until I win another competition.’ I thought.

I walked hand in hand with my four-year-old daughter as we went to the judges. I looked down at her beautiful brown hair wishing my wife; her mother, was here to share in this special moment.

‘We’ll get through…’