I was going to say, that's kind of a compliment "This ain't his first rodeo" meaning he/she knows what they're doing so wasn't quite sure how people took it when she asked if this was their first rodeo. Could come across as an insult, but didn't seem like anyone took it that way. But yeah, now she can say that! 'course, wear the hat next time.
@NVMVNV Do a little research. The concept of the Pow-wow (and I have been to many) didn't even exist until after the indigenous people began interacting with Europeans.
People who say, "American's have no culture" are most often city dwelling, America hating, liberals who have never spent any time traveling our open spaces and small towns.
@NVMVNV Americans originated from many different PLACES and have contributed aspects of their cultures to the local culture. That doesn't make the local culture any less unique. Its a lot like language. Many different countries speak English, for example, and we are able to generally understand one another. However, there are many regional dialects within each country wherein the people put their own unique spin on the language. Culture is no different.
When you've been around things like the Rocky mountains, small town america, and rodeos all your life, you kind of forget how special it is until you see it from the perspective of somebody who hasn't been exposed before. It was fun watching her excitement.
Grew up in Wyoming and I hope we never lose this. People forget how ancient of an art this really is. Human beings have been showing off their ability to stay on and control an animal for tens of thousands (maybe 100,000) years. It's a very deep part of our collective psyche. "Safety Culture" worries me. There are things that are more important than being safe.
Yup. Grew up here in Polson. Seeing my home through the eyes of someone who has never seen it before... the Mission Mountains as she came over Ravalli Hill... Pretty special.
I drove through Idaho and Montana with 5 other young British soldiers in 1981. We ended up in Sandpoint. What great people and a wonderful night in a bar with a 'Bucking Bronco' electric bull. The locals had never laughed so much in their lives. We were so hopeless but very keen to impress the ladies.
"These people are tough..." Yes, ma'am. They are. It's easy for outsiders to look at the US and think our success has made us soft. But there are millions of rural Americans who work hard every single day of their lives, and they are ALL tough as nails. If you aren't tough, you won't survive that life. That really applies to all rural people across the planet actually. Never underestimate a farmer or rancher.
@@richardfabacher3705 The sad thing is science has already found a way to grow meat. It doesn't taste right, yet nor have the right consistency, but lab grown meat is real.
I thought this would be disrespectful, I’m pleasantly surprised. America is a beautiful, wild, rugged, surprising place. Thank you for taking time to get to know us. We are a crazy, proud, passionate and loving people.
There is no "we" in America. America has been a deracinated nation when they open up immigration in 1965 to the third world. The United States is in crisis, the country’s problems are profound, intrinsic, without solution, and worsening. When a population reaches the point of despair, even desperation, when it sees a darkening future for itself and its children, people yearn for a strong man who will forcibly put things right. Yet it is unlikely that helicopters of Marines from Quantico will descend on the White House and announce the dictatorship of some general. Military officers are too well paid and comfortable to worry about the country. It is hard to imagine an American Mussolini. Trump is a caricature and no one else comes to mind. Yet “unrest” -less euphemistically, “chaos” on the order of Mr. Floyd’s massive riots, is possible. We have seen it. We can see it again.
Consider America today. By comparison with Japan, China, Korea, it is a barbarity, a dumpster, an asylum, an abattoir, an astonishment. San Francisco loses conventions because of needles and excrement on the sidewalks. Almost weekly we see multiple shootings in stores, high schools and, now, grade schools. Murders of whites by blacks run at thirty a month, the news being suppressed. In cities across the country crime is out of control, the tax bases moving out, bail abolished so criminals are freed in hours. Stores leave to escape undiscouraged shoplifting and robbery. Seven hundred homicides a year in Chicago, 300 in Baltimore, and at least twice as many shot but survive, similar numbers in a dozen cities. For practical purposes, law does not exist in these ungovernable enclaves. Sexual curiosities, once called perversions, flourish with American embassies hoisting flags in support of transsexualism. Mobs topple historical statues. Many tens of thousands live on sidewalks and a hundred thousand a year die of opioid overdoses. The country drops math requirements and English grammar in schools, AP courses, and SATs as racist. The economy declines, jobs have left for other climes, medical care is beyond most people’s means, government is corrupt and incompetent, and wars are unending. There is actual hatred between racial, political, and regional groups. Ominously, gun sales are up.
I hope you realize they your videos actually go a long ways to make Americans appreciate their own culture. It's refreshing to see my culture through the eyes of someone else.
Thanks I appreciate that observation. I'm very tired of this constant contempt for/dismissal of the US from the younger generations, spurred (haha) by social media/groupthink/whatever's going on in universities. It's like a sort of hollow replacement for true purpose or virtue in life, which require sacrifice and work and personal responsibility. Much easier to dismiss something, ridicule the entire structure that gave rise to your existence, and view yourself as a unique victim of history, a poor helpless soul planted in the very culmination of human corruption. America has it's share of problems, no doubt about that. But it's nice to appreciate its values as well. The idea that it's too young or too powerful or too materialistic to have a culture is just ridiculous, but it's a growing idea these days.
@Saunder This is why everybody should travel internationally and why Americans are so divorced from common attitudes worldwide to a greater degree than many-most other first-worlders.
I was born in Guatemala city but came to Texas on my 5th birthday. I've always appreciated the culture here and assimilated to become a proud American and Texan. As I've always said "Texas" is a state of mind rather than a state. Thank you Eva for allowing us to see things from a different perspective and appreciate all cultures!
Being a native Texan I have to say it is best to be your original self if you are moving to TX. We value originality and respecting your roots. While you may live among Texans please do not try to become something you are not. Like I said we value and respect others who are not from TX who do not forget their roots or their culture.
You “came” here. Just one day you live in Guatemala, the next day you come to a country that’s not yours and start stealing from the taxpayer. That’s so awesome
@@MissCleo24 it’s because America, the country everyone comes to for a “better life”, was made by Europeans and nobody else. All countries “Mayans” made suck, all countries Europeans made are fantastic. Your welcome you ungrateful piece of crap
As a born and raised Texan, you have summed up exactly what it means to be Texan. You have also made me happy the way you said becoming and American. Much love from one Texan to another.
When you get away from the coasts the USA, the people are more open to strangers. And people who talk funny, I’m from Oklahoma that’s why I talk funny.
@@dirtfarmer7472 I beg your pardon, I moved from Oklahoma all over the United States with construction work and finally settled in a south suburb of Chicago I keep trying to tell these people up here that I don't talk funny they do and if they don't, believe me, I can take him home to my County and show them several hundred people the sound just exactly like me.
Shout out to the cameraman exerting LEGENDARY self control keeping himself from cracking up at her reaction to the bullriding. Amazing video Eva, thank you!
He was seeing the job he's probably taking for granted through beautiful fresh eyes To hear Eva hoot and holler and shocked by bulls being riden probably made his day.
There will be trouble no matter what, why borrow it or volunteer for it? Then again I did volunteer for the military and sent into a warzone straightaway. I was a young buck and had no fear of death. Hard to believe that was me.....yet I lived to tell about it. Amazing. Thank God ! I like this plucky Polish girl. She is infectious.
My family and I visited a rodeo for the first time in Prescott/Arizona in 2019. It was our first trip to the United States and we simply loved the rodeo and the whole country and culture. Very impressive land! And very friendly and warmhearted people. God bless America! Greetings from Germany.🇺🇸🇩🇪
My mom and dad took us a few times to rodeos in AZ and it was always a great time. Iirc, we even went to some up on the rez and oh man... I miss it. The smell, the sounds, and just atmosphere as a whole :)
Like you Eva, I grew up in Central Europe. Except, I endured communism. Living in the US for over 40 years. Furthermore, the US military took me to many places, to include long term in West Germany, Colombia, Peru and others. Culture is a funny thing. To some is the classical music, to some is salsa dancing and to others, it’s rodeo and such. Whomever said that there is no culture in the USA lied to you, just like they lied to me 40+ years ago. It is just different from others’. This is a big country with broad cultural diversity. Enjoy! 🇺🇸
I think people in other countries just boil it down to, "The U.S. is all gun culture", which is ridiculous. Just drive to different states, and you find out what their thing is. We have New Orleans, Louisiana; we have the coastal culture of surfing and fishermen/women. We have the out West culture, we have the Native culture. Where I live there is a persimmon festival, because we have plentiful native persimmons in our state. When I travel out of state, I usually ask them what kind of festivals they have, or I check out an antique shop because that could tell me some of the history of the state. One of the southern states I drove through, I went to an antique shop and found slave manacles and chains. I was shocked, but I guess it didn't happen so long ago. That state also is known as a music state, where aspiring musicians go to get famous, if possible. So, it isn't all bad. Most fascinating to me was meeting a former moonshiner, so I got to ask him questions on whether he knew how to tell if it was moonshine or wood alcohol (a.k.a. methanol, deadly toxic). The guy's method, by the way, was to shake the moonshine in a clear jar and look at the bubble, which seems kin of risky in my opinion but that's what the man said. He said wood alcohol wouldn't make bubbles when shook. Moonshine does. My Mom's people were originally from Kentucky, and so Mom has memory of making apple molasses (which I've never seen on the store shelves, but basically you take cider and boil it down into molasses). My grandpa used to make homemade moonshine, but Grandma made him give it up. He still made brandy in some secret still, though, and drank it every Christmas with his boys while they also played Euchre. I can't imagine people feel so superior that they would say we have no culture. I suppose these are descendants of the same people who went to other countries where the natives wore different kinds of attire, and the observers, being so small minded, decided they were primitive and lacking culture.
Communism is a plague, sorry you had to endure it. Like the cancer that it is, I've even seem many waving the communist flag here in the USA, mostly foolish, spoiled college kids who've never had to deal with it.
@H.U.N.K. Indeed. It is so sad to see. They refuse to listen to those who endured those conditions. Today the word "refugee" is watered down. When I escaped Hungary, it actually meant something and I would have been imprisoned as the enemy of the people, should I have gotten caught. Nowadays, one is a refugee if claims a disagreement with a neighbor. I certainly don't blame those who are looking for better economic conditions, but our system that allows this insanity. Anyway, God bless the USA! 🇺🇸
I grew up in the western United States, around this kind of stuff, and I guess I really took that for granted. I thought that my life was pretty average and boring , but I guess to some people it's quite unusual. I guess not every child got to wander the wilderness, ride horses, or learn how to hunt and butcher an animal like I have. All of that time spent in the wilderness has come in handy. I now work as a first responder in a rural community, and in my spare time, I volunteer for search and rescue. I guess we really take for granted how lucky we really are in life until some one from another country comes along and gives you an interesting new perspective
Im from Dallas, a large city and I ALWAYS loved going to the rural areas my cousins lived and shoot guns outdoors, and hike for miles and actually be able to eat fish that I caught
As someone from Arizona, I only recently started embracing my local heritage more, here it seems like its fading because of lack of interest, which is sad.
It's unusual to anyone that hasn't grown on horseback. It looks weird and dangerous to us (while dressage, for example, is just weird horse dancing). The main reason is it being chaotic: you can control a trained horse, somehow, but a bucking bull? I come from a climate as cold and as northern as Canada, all shown is completely weird to me. I wander if figure skating, the sport I've grown up with, looks the same to people unfamiliar with it. Our training is a bit like those rodeos - so that to learn a new jump, one has to fall in attempts of doing it about 10 000 times. Fall - get up - repeat. I do have some experience with the vilderness, but with the vegetables, fish and mushrooms, not with hunting nor cattle. The most significant cattle in my climate are grass feed milk cows, they're chill and there's not that scale and emphasis on hearding them. They're sort of holy and respected in local culture. In grasslands where cattle is a bigger thing then plants it is, so in dry grasslands several thousand kilometres from me there are also weird horse sports. Local commmon person's horses historically could only tow a carriage or plow, but not be ridden, horses for riding would be expensive.
I remember when my wife's family came for our Wedding in Dallas Texas, from Switzerland. They had never been to Texas before and wanted to see the Ft. Worth Stockyards and the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma. These are things that many of us take for granted, but for them, it was one heck of an adventure and seeing the look on their faces when I took them to these places will always make me smile! ( I returned the favor by being blown away visiting Switzerland a few years later! )
So smiling at, "I think I have a crush on one of those cowboys." Don't under sell yourself. You're independent spirit is exactly what the American west, and being a cowboy is all about. Tell them your story and they'll be impressed too.
Thank you. Usually what we get from Europeans is a put down of everything American. Most Americans in the middle states away from the coastlines are hardworking people who grow the food, raise the cattle and build things that make this country great. It's a nice change to see a European enjoy a slice of America that is completely our own.
Even the parts of the west coast states that are inland you find an entirely different mindset. Inland California is a different world than coastal California. The odd part about the coastal people is they don't even consider the inland people that grow the very food they eat in their fancy restaurants to be their social equals. Calling them snobs is an understatement.
@@Anon54387 funny how I often see comments from rural people disparaging urban people for their snobbishness, but rarely if ever the reverse, and then only in the context of stories about political controversies where politicians from rural areas are doing something that affects everybody. No one looks down on rural people. Rather, urban people tend to just not think about rural people at all.
Yes. There are NO hardworking people on either coast. That's the kind of benighted statement that makes us on either coast wonder how you folks in the middle find your way from bed to the toilet in the morning.
I live in Montana and I’m really glad that you’ve had such a warm welcome. I actually saw you driving on the road today but you were going the other way. All the best for your journey forward.
It was refreshing to see Eva showing appreciation for something deeply rooted in American culture. Unlike most games and competitive sports, rodeo is the locals coming together putting their WORK on display...demonstrating how good they are at something they do daily living and working on a ranch. Like lumber jacks have all kinds of log-splitting contests and axe vs saw, etc. and farmers have produce competitions...biggest pumpkin or whatever. Just think what the world would be like if everyone was so passionate about being the best at what they do. Thanks to Eva for taking us along! It was good.
I literally teared up at the patriotism, stamina of our folks, good manners toward you and also for your respect and admiration for these folks shown by you. Safe travels and thanks for your videos.
Visited my cousins in Colorado Springs last year. She told me they had to sign all kinds of waivers and escort their kids out for the mutton rides. They later went to a rodeo in Montana visiting other relatives. The rodeo just called for any kid in the stands that wanted to come down and they all ran out. Montana is the real deal!
Not to turn your comment into something political, but that is the difference between a blue state and a red state. Colorado used to be more like Montana. My sister's husband has family in Steamboat Springs. Ranchers. When he was a teen he had a right of passage experience with his uncles: eating raw Rocky Mountain oysters.
@@awakenedspirit7947 Actually, no. With all it's flaws there is still no better example of self-governance and freedom to pursue one's own happiness that has ever existed than the USA. We are not exceptional by luck, it is the intent and purpose of our founding documents which set the course. Not understanding that is the result of a poor education, (sadly, something all too common these days). We don't hide our mistakes, we attempt to correct them. And we keep them visible in our history so as not to repeat them. Nobody swims the sharks to get 'into' Cuba or Venezuela and the Berlin wall was built to keep people in. Historically, the natural state of man is one of subjection to tyranny.
@@awakenedspirit7947 If you live here, and don't like it....perhaps Canada would be more to your liking. Either way, I hope you find or found a place you're proud to live in.
I'm going to be honest, I was a little scared when I opened this video, rodeo isn't always somthing that people understand, and 'cowboy culture' in general is often misinterpreted, being romantized or villinized, especially in the world of social media. As someone who works in the horse industry, and also on the family ranch I just wanted to say thank you for sharing a positive video and taking the time to ask questions and talk to the cowgirls/cowboys. I've never commented on any video ever before, but I wanted to add my thanks for representing and sharing about a way of life that is truly its own important peice of american culture.
@@livthedream5885 You may wish to read ODYSSEUS REX's comment above. These are men and women exhibiting their talents that are used daily on most farms. There is nothing cruel about it. This is how MOST of us get our meals. It is no different than any other athletic/ skilled competition. Vote with your pocketbook. If you do not find it appealing, do not go to the rodeo, and do not eat meat. For those of us who think otherwise, allow us to exercise our freedom as well please.
To exploit these animals for entertainment is even less moral than for food, IMO. However it’s all cruel, yes…how’d you like to be violently lassoed, thrown to the ground and hog tied? How’s you like your balls tied to make you buck for entertainment? These are sentient creatures. I do not attend rodeos, the zoo, or sea world. I only buy meat for my husband and son, who haven’t joined my vegan campaign. I don’t bother anyone about their diet, as I’m not always consistent myself. This is an area I’m working on, and believe there are better ways to treat farmed animals than we do. I’m comfortable with moral nuance and ambiguity, but we should honestly acknowledge our failures to our fellow creatures. But if you want people to leave you to your “lifestyle”, you must leave others alone as well (reproductive rights, sexual orientation, etc…). Don’t tell the world you’re pro life while treating life with abject cruelty.
I have spent some time in Europe so it was fun ti see her reaction and it made me feel proud too. I.kept laughing when she would ask them what made this rodeo so special. I wanted to tell her absolutely nothing special about this one in particular lol you could find one just like it in every county. Like the guy said, this was his second one that wknd
I'm impressed. A positive attitude, a typical small town rodeo in beautiful Montana, and honest respect for the local people who put their heart and soul into perfecting their craft. Kudos to you.
I took a few of my family from England to the Rodeo and they were horrified and disgusted by it, and kind of created a bit of scene. And they keep going on and on about the treatment of the animals . I took them around and tried to explain things but they had this closed mind mentality and in the end I had to leave early. Glad you went in with an open mind and enjoyed the sport for what it is
@@garygullikson6349 heh, reminds me of a story I heard that some animal rights or food activists in Ireland tried suing dairy farmers for not letting their dairy herd graze outside in the winter and feeding them hay.
As someone from Texas it's very cool seeing your reactions and questions when your experiencing it all. It really makes me happy for some reason and It's so cool seeing ur excitement over things we see and understand to be normal
Marco Ayala, Exactly, my thoughts as well. Growing up in Texas, or any western/southwestern state we see it everyday. It was fun seeing her reactions. All in all, it made me proud.
I went to my first or second rodeo idk in the Fort Worth stadium where the first indoor one was held at cuz I’m from Fort Worth and I’ve been to the stockyards and all that but man was it a amazing experience can’t wait to be able to go to billy bobs when I’m older
I am from Los Angeles so not much country life here but my son attended a college that hosts an annual rodeo. It was so fun to visit during that weekend. Cowboys and cowgirls are just the nicest and most genuine people you will ever meet. We still go back even though my son graduated years ago
I'm from the U.S. (Kentucky,) and just went to my first rodeo a few years ago, in Cody, Wyoming. It was an awesome experience with good people, good fun, and some super exciting bull riding. I was just like Eva, gasping everytime someone fell off a bull. There was a small dog that helped to rear in the bulls and it kept running between their legs and I was holding my breath the whole time thinking it was going to get trampled. That dog was hardcore.
Thank you for having an open mind going to a rodeo. There has been such a disconnect between rural America and the urban areas. I actually grew up in an urban setting, but most of my family lived in more rural areas, and I currently live in a town of 650 people. I am glad I was able to raise my kids out here. They have seen their uncle, aunt and cousins work hard to raise food for others. Thank you also for asking questions and learning more. Rodeos came about when oldest cowboys got bored and bragged about their skills. Most every event you watched was part of their everyday life, yes that includes riding bulls, as some did use them for riding, but more often for pulling wagons. Calf tying was used so the cowboy could brand them. Barrel racing shows the skill needed on open range to keep the herd together. Every event has a story. There is a lot of debate as to how these animals are cared for, but that generally comes from people who haven't been around these animals. With bulls and broncs, some of those animals are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to their owners. Just like we insure our houses against damage, those animals are insured against injury, and generally get better health care than most people. If you are still touring North America, come on down to my kneck of the woods. We are 2 hours east of Denver, Colorado, off I70. There is a lot of history, and good people.
You conveniently failed to mention all the animals who are abused, maimed, and killed in the name of these events. Quit your white washing nonsense. A select few animals are insured, but most are treated like dirt. This outdated blight on American culture needs to end.
A little correction, Rodeos didn’t come from bored cowboys, rodeos originate from Old Mexico where Charros from different Haciendas/ranchos competed against each other. It made its way to north to South Texas, and Rodeos were held too. That’s why almost 100% of the cowboys tools are vaquero (Spanish cowboy direct translation), like Lariat for La Riata (the rope), cowboy saddle is (south) Texan vaquero, Mexican saddle, chaparreras (chaps), cowboy spurs, Texan vaquero, cowboy hat, the cowboy bandana was worn as a “paliacate”.
If you lived here long enough, you'd find yourself in cowgirl boots, aching to be on a horse. This isn't just a rodeo, it's a way of life. Thanks for the positive video!!!
My brother and his family hosted a foreign exchange student from Thailand and one weekend I took her to a bull riding competition. She got a cowboy hat, ate the rodeo food, and didn't believe me when I said men were going to ride those big bulls. When that fist cowboy busted out of the chute on that first bull, her eyed got huge and her mouth literally dropped open. Up until that moment she thought I was lying. She loved every minute of the competition and I'm sure it's something she'll never forget.
I remember being a child & telling my Dad "I don't think the bulls and horses like it". And he replied "They love it! They buck the rider, go in the back and tell their friends about it."
I believe it. I had a bird that would ring like a phone when I would take the dogs out, just to stop as soon as I ran back in to answer it. The look on her face the day I caught her.
Yes! Bucking stock are selected specifically BECAUSE they love to buck! And think about it - they work 8 seconds at a time once a week, only in the summer. They then spend all winter on open range, basically being a wild horse, but well-fed. Damn good job if you can get it.
While living throughout the South Pacific, I was told many many times (especially from folks that had never been to the US) that the "Us has no culture." Quite the contrary, the US has almost all of the cultures of the world in some way, shape, or fashion. Culture is everywhere here and if one isn't careful and paying attention, they might just trip and fall over it. Great vid as usual Eva, take your time and soak it all in!
I think people from small countries just don't realize that there is literally every culture in the US. Every decent size city has a little Italy, China town, latino area etc.
@@patfranks785 I'm old enough to remember when America was all white and it had its own unique culture most commonly called "Americana". It was unique to America and it was everywhere. Now maybe you don't know it because because someone the the floodgates open and it was inundated and overwhelmed but all the other cultures poured on top of it. It still had a pulse, though it's had to see these days.
@@fionnmaccumhaill3257 Americana hasn't disappeared. It's just been copied by almost every other country. So that it doesn't seem that distinct anymore. I mean, look at China. In a few decades they went from being an agricultural society, to being a more modern society that now build computers. They took most of our style and technology and made it their own.
I am SO glad to see a European acknowledge American Western Culture as Culture!!! If you have as much interest as you seem to, I suggest going to working ranch. If you true fear, ride brake on a herd of 500 yearlings coming down a mile long slope! Here is the real deal about rodeo. Except for the daredevil excitement of bull riding, the rest of it is actual cowboy skills that you use on a working ranch, stock yard, etc. If you want to see even more real and realistic cowboy skills, go to a RANCH Rodeo. These skills are rooted in generational families and actually have their beginnings back as far as Genghis Khan. Cowboy skill, as practiced in North America, came down from the caballeros of Spain and Portugal. Team roping and calf roping are skills used to catch cattle on the open range or in large pastures. The bareback and saddle bronc riding comes from the need to acclimatize and train horses to work with us on the ranch. On a family ranch, you start riding with Dad and Mom before you can walk, and you learn animal husbandry and care at a very early age. So there is no fear, because you how to not get into trouble with animals, and how to get out of it if you do get into trouble.
Omg I just went to my first rodeo recently too (in Texas). We don’t have them in Scotland either! And I agree - so much culture to be found in the US when you look closely. Great video 🤠 P.S. - I bought a cowboy hat too and they loved that I wore it 🤠
The only people who say "there's no culture in the US," or that it's "less than" are self-loathing progressives who think that saying such things endears them to Europeans. My only advice is to avoid people like that at all cost.
Congrats! I grew up doing rodeos in Oklahoma in the 60's. What a blessing it was. The country's changed a lot since back then, but the spirit of America which is kept alive in the Cowboy world hasn't changed much. Nice hat.👍😁
"It's an actual bull... with horns... it's not a sheep!" Hahahaha... Too funny. Love your reactions, so real, spontaneous, just beautiful, like you. Thanks for being you.
I was amused when she told the people at the concession stand that this was her first rodeo since there is that idiom saying this isn't my first rodeo.
Good on you for coming in as a vegetarian, European and being open minded. Such a drastically different culture than you are used to and you respected it for what it was, a different culture.
It's not a culture. It's an idiotic, cruel activity that's been done for far too long, but that doesn't make it American culture. American here and I don't want to be associated with such barbarism any more than I would Spanish bullfighting. Calling something culture does not negate its horrific nature.
@@SheilaR.08 tell us you know absolutely nothing about rodeo without telling us. I raise bucking stock and I’ve rodeod the majority of my life. There’s nothing barbaric about it. The animals aren’t intentionally harmed, although accidents CAN happen. Why would I abuse my bulls and horses when they’re worth millions of dollars? Use your brain and actually take the time to do research and maybe find someone that’s involved in it to learn from instead regurgitating uniformed myths you’ve read on the internet.
@@SheilaR.08 This guy really just compared Rodeo to Spanish bullfighting. Ya know, where they slowly kill the bull after torturing and weakening it and drugging it.
LOL, I thought this was going to be annoying and that she was some kind of judging prude but what a breath of fresh air she is, thanks for this glimps into proud American life
I love to see an outsider perspective on the rodeos that I’ve grown up competing in. It’s always hard to see people bashing it because they don’t understand so seeing someone so open and understanding is refreshing. Great vid!
Rodeos aren’t even an American thing it’s a Mexican Spanish tradition and it was discovered and adopted in the states don’t be ignorant and at least look into it.
My father grew up on a working ranch in south Texas and they used cowboy and vaquero interchangeably. The rodeo she went to is American as there are differences between the two from the saddles, the way they throw a lariat, the events and even the way they handle the same tasks. My grandfather threatened to shoot a vaquero who worked for him if he ever used “Spanish spurs “ on any of the horses again. The idea of rodeos come from Mexico along with the cowboy but has changed to be something American.
@Easttowest nah it’s our culture and you’re countrymen adopted it even now it’s still our tradition it’s been that way ever since those hundreds of years passed you people just adopted it it because it was cool it’s an actual lifestyle for us Spanish North Americans in Mexico 🇲🇽 all over the country, because when people want to see rodeos they go to Texas or the west when people down here want to see a rodeo or bull riding we just do it or go to the nearby ranches, I mean no disrespect when I close this off by saying this but you Anglo North Americans aren’t even original in your actual culture so you claim that it’s yours but can’t accept that you adopted it, realistically it’s our tradition and way of life down here in Mexico 🇲🇽 you people just do it for the hell of it and try painting this delusion to all that come from Europe or Asia claiming that it’s American and that’s where I have to correct your ignorant claim.
@@guyfalcurious762 it hasn’t changed to be anything American it’s just adopted into Anglo American 🇺🇸 southern culture due to its closeness to Mexico and considering the west was part of the first Mexican republic 🇲🇽
Thank you so much for highlighting my culture. Rural America is a unique part of the whole, found across the states and rodeos have always been a fun way of bridging the gap between agricultural/ranching folks to those who might come watch. We love to share our passion, family and culture ❤ seriously, thank you for appreciating something that can be so heavily mocked and hated by people who have never been or don’t even want to understand why we do what we do.
I’ve never been to a rodeo and want to understand. I mean this with all sincerity, from the animals perspective are they okay with all of this? Do they ever get hurt? Or just have to endure whatever is being done to them for human entertainment? I really do want to understand and hope it is that the cowboy/girl really does try and not actually hurt the animal.
@@Kaia6485 it’s understandable to have concerns. Yes sometimes the animals can get hurt, just like the people. The sport used to be a lot more dangerous and harder on both people and animals, but like all things it’s evolved with our own understanding and education. No one cares more than the people competing and those raising the animals. Yes there is always a bad apple here and there, but the rest of the community is quick to put a stop to abuse and neglect. At every rodeo there is a vet on standby as well as an EMS team for the people. Most of the animals actually do enjoy it, or see it like a job. They have a lot of training and are used to it. Like the Bulls, broncs, even the roping steers. It’s high adrenaline, and is exciting to watch. Although there are professional athletes in rodeo now, but animals and people, it’s a sport that never forgot where it came from. Which was ranch hands coming together in a community to relax, enjoy company, show off their ranches livestock and even do business. In many ways it’s still like that.
@@kcarter0265 Thank you for the response, everything you said makes sense. It’s good to hear there’s an emt on hand for the people and animals and that everyone’s safety is an utmost concern.
Thank you for allowing me to see my country through your eyes. You moved me to tears of pride for my people and my nation. We are our best outside of the big cities. I hope you get a cowboy. No doubt, all of America loves you.
This episode brought me to tears and I think it's because I am recalling memories from my childhood with my dad, who has passed on. Thank you for highlighting what is American culture for you Eva, because you're right, we American's take this sort of stuff totally for granted. There's a big difference between city folk, and rural here, and most of what folks see on TV is how hollywood portrays this country, not necessarily how it is in reality. I love how each state, does have it's own culture and vibe. I'm so happy Montana is treating you well. Much love and prayers, be safe on your journeys.
It brought me to tears as well. Memories and emotions and being a local here in Montana, growing up this way and watching her experience it with such joy. It was an emotional video for some crazy reason, I cried 😀 I really loved watching this.
And most of Hollywoods portrayals are what I consider false garbage. I'm glad she enjoyed herself. Seems like she might be an alright person, even though I do find the whole Vegan thing weird and confusing.
As a pregnant late 20’s has been barrel racer, I’m literally crying at at your video, the excitement, the recognition that it very much so is a culture, and your all around support for (in the opinion of many) the most American Sport that exists. I’m so glad you enjoyed, and I can’t thank you enough for bringing a little bright light to a very special thing.❤️
I'll have you know the female barrel racers were the most exciting thing for me to watch. Full on hard charging adrenaline rush. I grew up in Sikeston Missouri, right next door to the Jaycee Bootheel rodeo that drew all the big country acts from Kenny Rogers to Willie Nelson. I sold snow cones and sodas at every rodeo. They lasted for several days. Thanks for the fun!
Sad. Barrel racing isn't a sport. At the end of their careers each horse walks strangely and place weight oddly. The mere practice literally changed them. Not to mention the horrid spurring when studies have shown horses feel more pain than us. Tradition shouldn't mean cruelty
@@alongcamekarma Don't believe everything you read on a PETA website. Barrel racing horses absolutely love competing. And not a sport? You have no idea what you're talking about.
@@mplsgordon2 I worked with horses for eighteen years and barrel raced for twelve, until I went to college and wrote a thesis on the effects of barrel racing. Horses are driven neurotic due to training regiments (but yay, fun, right? Puhleez.) hooves and tendons and permanently damaged in every long term barrel racer. This has been supported by numerous scientific studies recently released. Not to mention how unregulated it is. Studies have also shown kicking a horse doesn't make it go faster and is actually the cause for many injuries horses relieve, and that those specific injuries are higher in barrel racers because of the treatment. Next rodeo ya go to, ask every barrel racer you see if they can show you how to do an emergency dismount. Just say you've heard of it but you're nervous to try. See how many even know how to do it in theory, and how many actually can. Now that is kinda fun. I got tired of abuse and ill fitted tack. Btw. Peta isn't a reliable or scientific source, especially since they have the highest kill rate over any shelter in the country and have harmed animals many times in their quest. But...you tried...
@@alongcamekarma Thank you for a thoughtful response. While I was never a barrel racer myself and never will be, there's several in my close family and friends. And I've been around it a lot. I do know how to do an emergency dismount; it was something taught to me as a rider among other, working riders. I honestly can't imagine rodeos or barrel racing being regulated. If that happened, I'd imagine it would revert to the sort of events I grew up around; 50 to 100 competitors at a private arena on private land. I can't comment on the studies you mention because I haven't seen them. Perhaps they are valid. In general "studies" reproduce at shockingly low rates, if the data are not falsified altogether. Again, perhaps your studies are better. I'd read them if they're available. I certainly was unaware that there is a brewing controversy over barrel racing. From what I've seen it's grown from a women's rodeo event to a family event that lets entire families have fun together with their horses.
To be fair everything is exotic depending on where you come from. When I moved to Canada people used to laugh at me for getting excited about snow 😂 coz I come from a country where we just have hot/cold/rainy/dry, we don't have snow. So something so regular was foreign as hell to me.
Thank you for shooting this video for the other American-obsessed Europeans that are watching. I'm really passionate about all-things horses and would like to attend a rodeo show in the US one day. You should watch Heartland if you're into rodeo shows, there are plenty of scenes with rodeo shows and rodeo show lessons in there. It's not 100% American, the show but close (it's shot in Canada)
Proud to be American. Thank you for enjoying the different cultures, hopefully you travel around more and experience all that the USA has to offer. There is a stigma here from the outside, but its only because of media and ignorant people. Its the best place to be on earth in my opinion. May god bless you on your travels.
Oh, I think the real reason was to get closer to the cowboys. Something about a crush, I think. Big kudos to Eva for going into the heartland of America, which is the real United States. So many foreigners stay on the coasts when they come here and think those crazies in New York and California represent the real America. So far from the truth. Those people at that rodeo are real, moral, rational, fine Americans, and they are awake, not woke.
@@theloneranger8725 I think her motivation was little bit from column A and a bit from column B…. But yeah, I agree. It was mostly column B. that brought her down there! 🤣👍
I was stationed in Spain while in the Air Force in the early 80s. I was amazed to see a rodeo come to town there. We had a guy from Wyoming in my unit and he competed and won in the calf roping event.
Oh, my gosh! I was in Spain in the early eighties too. My husband was stationed at Torejon and we saw a Rodeo on base but they were Gypsies! Just about like the American version.
@@Egilhelmson Not quite. It wasn't the US at the time and want something that was taught or imported for an established people. When the Spanish imported the first cattle into Mexico in the 1500's the Rodeo was more just a way of the vaqueros to show off their skills and cut loose. Entertainment back then was what you made. From there it was just part of the cattle farming culture. Much later the Rodeo would be born as an off shoot to the traveling circus business that had used cowboys to help tend their animals and enter the ring entertaining crowds with their riding and roping skills. In the end, it wasn't something that was just something that evolved out of a job.
What a lovely bubbly person this Eva is. Breath of fresh air in today's society. She's yelling because she's enjoying the moment and not pushing an agenda. We need more of that nowadays.
Eva, in spite of the big show they've become, a hobby or source of income, rodeos were born from actual ranch work. The ability to ride a rank horse on a daily basis, roping and tying stock for various reasons etc. Pecos Texas lays claim to being the home of the world's first rodeo. I find that a dubious claim given the daily routine of ranch life and competitive nature of most cowboys. I grew up on a ranch, trust me, getting kicked while treating a maggot infested cut in an onery old cow is not near as glamorous as a rodeo would have you believe.
Opinions vary but most people agree that the first rodeo was held in Deer Trail Colorado in 1869. The rodeo you are referring to in Pecos happened in 1883.
@joelmopar yeah I know what you mean, had one of the worst bruises on a thigh from a horse. Worried it was broke for a bit, then I was wishing it was. Had a friend had 3 toes broken from a horse stomping on’em, luckily it didn’t get the top of the foot. Yeah they don’t say anything about that I bet in the booklet.😂😂😂
It's everyday here in Texas. I've wrecked my body through rodeo, cow and pig working and football. It's a scary high but it's real. Thank you for giving me a new appreciation of American and Mexican culture.
You definitely had the most "culturally indulgent" first time rodeo experience there is. Going to the bigger PBR or NFR events are great, and you'll see some amazing skills on display. But you won't ever have nearly the same experience as going out to a rural Montana town and watching the local competitors. Good on you for seeking it out and just being open about all of it. Its easy for us to overlook how different Rodeo is as a sport to just about anything else on the planet.
As an American it was such a great chance to see how people from other countries see the real us behind the bad press and bluster. We are essentially 50 states that are as difference as separate European countries in so many ways. Vid was respectful and you are addictively fun. Just remember... even in America the West's this mythical place so many of us dream of being part of.
You are very correct on that. I grew up in Indiana most of my life (and I'm half-European, so I've visited a few places there, too), but I didn't get to the West Coast until I was 31 years old. Until then, the furthest west in the United States I had ever been was Texas; I have an aunt and uncle living there, and their kids stayed in the area or returned to it. A few years ago, I had a different aunt and uncle visit from Belgium, and we showed some things that America is known for. The big thing they went crazy over was the yellow school buses; many of the buses in Belgium, if I remember correctly, are closer to what airport shuttles would be.
Stay away from the blue cities then, like Portland, LA, Seattle, SF, Chicago, Austin, NYC, and obviously DC. Most anywhere else is pretty nice. Then go find a real rodeo like this girl did, that was a real one.
I watched this video thinking this would be someone else tearing down rodeo thinking we are animal abusers. This is a huge part of American history. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. And youth rodeos are a real common thing too. There is truly no age that can’t compete. Another thing is people in the rodeo world just want to grow it therefore they tend to be real sweet and informing on our sport.
Animal abusers? If I am not mistaken in Spain when they have Bull Fighting after the matadors are finished the bull is merciless stabbed over and over until he dies. Now that is animal cruelty not culture.
In case you wonder...its less lack of fear...and more the comfort that comes from familiarity, training, and confidence. When you know the animals well, train with them, work with them all week...its almost as if you 'speak their language'. You learn the 'do's and don'ts' until the fear you might have felt at first becomes respect. With show ready horses in particular, some horses take as much pride in their performance as any rider does...they are literally the other half of a team, often the one doing the harder and more complex job. Show riding...my job was to give the correct signals at the precise times, have the gear and tack ready and well fitted, and to never let my posture or movements distract or confuse my horse. We each knew our parts, and thats what made us a good team. I miss those days a lot.
I was the only Asian in many of the places I traveled to in New Mexico, Wyoming and Montana region. It’s actually quite cool to look like an outsider as people are absolutely friendly and eager to show you things around!!!
Really I live in the Idaho, Wyoming Montana area basically 60 miles from each ( Yellowstone National Park, Teton National Park) and we have 4 to 6 tour busses come through daily all summer every day of nothing but Asians.
@@clydeacor1911, I don’t think so… as I had lived in the SW for 8 years… I only “looked” like an outsider but I had hiked nearly every trail in New Mexico!
Having grown up in a very similar cultural environment in Oklahoma, your reactions to this brought me to tears of laughter and joy. Local rodeos like this used to be very common. Today, many of them have become sadly commercialized. You have been given a glimpse of a very traditional community event that is disappearing from the American experience. (By the way, you need a straw cowboy hat for everyday wear ... it would be far less conspicuous than the dress hat.)
It’s really cool to see someone experience a rodeo for the first time and it makes you think about how fascinating or crazy it looks to someone who hasn’t ever experienced it before.
When I first moved in with my adoptive family I knew I was going into a horse family because they did our horse program, it was so cool going to my first rodeo I thought it would be so cool to try out, years later I got my chance they were starting up a bucking horse school just in the city next. It was quite an experience I would have never in my young life ever thought I would be trying this for real. It was probably one of the hardest things I've done was saddle bronc riding, but it was so much fun, the lifestyle, the adrenaline, the people you meet. Traveling with your friends. It was so much fun but I eventually had to quit because I bucked off my horse at a rodeo and broke 6 bones in my lower back. My mother told me I wasn't allowed to ride anymore lol so that ended my career in a hurry but I had fun while it lasted
I'm glad that you came away from your first rodeo with the perspective that you did. The stock is typically very well taken care of and the performance horses are very, very well taken care of. My daughter is 32, has two young boys, and she's been barrel racing since she was 4. I have two of her horses on my pasture. It's a way of life that we take for granted. Your video reminded me of that. It takes a lot of skill to do any of the rodeo events. They are true athletes.
You all are what great Americans are and the world should know this. Americans all over should respect the midwest and west for this culture. Mexico and Canada also have their own rodeos so it's a part of the Americas as a whole. But watching it in America is phenomenal. I don't appreciate or respect bull fighting such as in Spain and Mexico, but bull and horse riding are amazing!
@@paulkoval9138 I hear ya! I can't believe that these organized animal abuse events (aka, rodeos) continue to be legally tolerated this far into the 21st century
@@organican GO away you little sniveling uneducated woke liberal. Until you've lived this life you have NO idea how little animal abused is involved. Until you've owned live stock you have no clue how wrong your whiney comment is. ALL OF THESE ANIMALS ARE GREATLY CARED FOR! This is a way of life whether you like it or not!
i'm from Alberta Foothills west of Calgary. It's a lot like Montana. Lots of Cowboys. To be a Cowboy / Cowgirl is loving our country environment , wearing denim and being authentic and peaceful. A cowboy hat helps complete centredness
I don’t know how different Calgary is, but I’ve lived in Oregon (Pendleton Roundup) Montana and I’ve e NEVER heard of a hat for ‘centeredness’. Kinda makes me think you just live in Alberta, not a cowboy. The hat is to keep the sun off of your head, face and neck. God
@@debbylou5729 yeah I haven’t heard of that terminology in Mexico, or any part of the southwest either…. Maybe it’s just a Canadian thing. 🤷♀️ Brazilian bull riders often have a lot of unique terms for stuff in their rodeo scene. Maybe it’s like that?🤔 lol
Marie and I have seen numerous rodeos. So it was fun to see your perspective on the cowboy tradition in the US. With enough hard work and dedication, we can do whatever we put our minds to do. If you truly want to learn to ride a horse...you can do it. Then, when you are comfortable in just riding, then you can lean to do some of the other stuff. About whether you'd be scared...when we are young, we have this invulneralbiility about our lives...so riding a sheep, then a bucking horse, to a bull...is the natural progression. As an adult, our sense of self-preservation kicks in. No thank you, This was a lot of fun watching it through your eyes. Thanks for sharing this with us.
This was a respectful and interesting video about discovering a rodeo and getting a taste of rural western US culture. I think you handled it wonderfully, Eva. I grew up in the eastern Midwest, but once I moved to the rural West, I realized I'd found my true home. Happens. Country is big enough for both urban and rural folks to live with their separate cultures, but I don't care for it when one group rags on the other. Should be room for all kinds of different cultures without judgement. Keep doing what you're doing. Always an interesting view to see the world through your eyes.
More people should realize that in the important ways, we are all the same. We all want the same things. The number of bad people around us might be increasing, but we have to remember that the vast majority of people we come across are just like us.
I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. Although I personally wasn't involved in events such as these, the rodeo culture is something I love and respect. As it is certainly part of American culture, I love that you loved it so much. Thank you for this video!!
I grew up watching the Houston Fat Stock show parade with the real Salt Grass trail riders and then seeing the rhinestone cowboys sing at the Rodeo in the Astrodome.
Thank you so much for recognizing our culture, this is something that drives me crazy when someone from the city says that the US has no culture of it's own. Love the video, if you are ever in Northern CA I would love to take you to a CA rodeo... Yes, we rodeo in CA!
If you get away from the coastal cities, California almost begins to resemble a normal place. It's just too bad that the cities dominate the political landscape. In WA we have a similar problem with the Seattle area dominating state politics.
@@Snipergoat1 -- I give you guys both a thumb's-up, but I'm from San Francisco; somewhat to the left; more liberal-minded than big L; but still all of my friends here are quite normal; way more centrist than you'd imagine: almost all of us have been to rodeo, and I love it. I think Americans at the extremes are trying to pull the rest of us against each other.
My Granddaughter won the Mutton Busting one night at the National Western Rodeo when she was 6 years old. I told her to just not let go, and she didn't. Rode that sheep all the way across the arena. What a memory!
This was actually beautiful to see, especially during the prayer n the national anthem!!! That actually made me tear up!! N seeing something so American, thru someone else's eyes who's seeing it for the first time just made me feel so much pride n patriotism!!!
@@boblatkey7160 Boo! I'm an atheist, but I'm also a cultural anthropologist, and a community sharing a moment of unity and bonding is a beautiful thing, this is an American ritual akin to jumping in the ring with bulls for graduation day at the Politechnic University as I witnessed down in Ecuador. It's not that these people have no fear, but that they overcome their fear with mutual support. Don't be a hater your whole life...
@@boblatkey7160 Who pissed in your milk? And your remark makes no sense, if you have the ability to stop and think. Take a moment. You see now? Yes! Every culture throughout history has had an exploitative relationship with animals! And you guessed it, like an atheist who has no problem with religion, I'm a vegetarian who has no problem with ranching. Here's a conundrum to tie your little brain in knots for a while: how is it that hunters are the most ardent conservationists?
If by "American" you mean it was something developed in the Americas, then, yeah. It is American. You may want to look into the actual origins of rodeo before you try to identify it solely with the United States. There are a lot of other countries in the Americas that would take issue with anyone claiming this is a uniquely U.S. phenomena; or that the U.S. had any real hand in its origins at all.
@@brandonhall5615 The same is said about everything being claimed in other countries. Your "argument" isn't one. You don't sound intelligent at all. Her statement means, something imbedded in American history. Example with YOUR statement: China being associated with martial arts.... when other countries can make that statement. You just want to argue to argue. To add to this, the US made so many things popular. So, if by "You may want to look into the actual origins.", YOU may want to look into actually having a cohesive argument, and learn critical thinking.
@@brandonhall5615 If you worked on a ranch and went on a cattle drives or herded sheep in The United🇺🇸States you would understand that this is necessary "work" turned into Competition Fun. No matter where it came from when, it is necessary. The techniques that they use have been around for ..a long time.
Just remember, you can be a Vegan, a Vegetarian, and even be a part of PETA and still love the rodeo. The key is knowing what is happening and understanding it before you condemn anything. There is a lot of history in rodeos and the lifestyle as a whole. I'm a part of "The Daddy of 'em all" here is Cheyenne and I love to tell visitors all about it. It's not just the rodeo for us, but the whole 10-12 days of celebration. July 20-30 this year. PM me or send me an email if you'd like to know more.
Poulson is just outside of Missoula, where I used to live and they put on a great rodeo with some of the best cowboys around. Glad you got to see it. The other two rodeos that are must see are the Calgary stampede and the Livermore rodeo, in the east bay area in California. Billed as "The fastest rodeo in the west" its 3 days of sheer excitement and exposure like you don't get in most places. Some of my best memories while attending Livermore high where our mascot was, you guessed it... "The cowboys." 😉
As someone who competes it’s a breath of fresh air to see someone from Europe go in with and open mind I’ve met one European person at a rodeo and the hated it to the point of accusing my folks of convincing me it was ok to abuse animals when it isn’t abuse to the animals when rodeo stock has a better life than most other animals Edit : I’m 15 and compete in bareback riding I’m good enough to compete professionally and if u really want to learn this cowboy stuf then lmk I got nothing but time to spare
I agree Ive helped out on ranches and I've been to rodeo's. those free range animals are big and tuff. Life as a rodeo animal is a lot easier. But people who have never been around it don't know that.
Glad to see you enjoying the Rodeo! It is a celebration of the historical skills used by American cattlemen. They are a part of every county fair in most of the western states. I have found the people who attend the rodeo to be way more friendly than people at other sporting events in America. Most sporting events in America you can sense some hostility if you are not supporting the home team. The rodeo is about individual effort an achievement. Every participant earns my respect every time.
American culture is very much wrapped up in the cowboy, and it is true American culture. The cattle boom forever changed American expectations in regards to diet and lifestyle that you don't see anywhere else. American obsession with cars extends from the west & Midwest because we're just culturally *used* to long-distance travel. Europeans don't understand the drive or desire for the most part.
@@vaquero7x Thanks for sharing! Always a good day when I learn something knew! Many western traditions have their origins in Mexico I am certain. The southwestern United States has a great heritage as a result of that fact.
I grew up on a farm/ranch and we went to some kind of rodeo almost every weekend in the summer! My dad was a bull dogger and I started out as his hazer when I was about 9 or 10. As I got a little bigger I really got into barrels and calf roppen and even did some bareback bronc riding which I was more than very good at when I hit 15-17, but in my day (think 50 years ago) they would not allow girls to compete in these area's they tried to keep us in 'girl' sports like barrel racing, pole bending, mutton doggen. I still worked as my dad's hazer until I was about 16 when I started doing my own thing. Love this sport!! I love horses and pretty much every animal in a rodeo. We had a huge bull at home but he was raised by my siblings and I so he was gentle as the family dog, so I use to get on him and pretend he was a bucking bull as he grazing! I still ride horses but I am getting a little old for much of anything else. Hope you really enjoyed you tour of our most beautiful country! Y'all come back now ya' hear!!
I have done more traveling than most people and Montana is in my top 3 of places I've been. I hope you get a chance to check out northern New Mexico, you might expect it to be like Texas but it is nothing like it with its colorful rocks everywhere. The American West is my home and I am very happy to have discovered your channel.
Also, I live next to a rodeo arena in the California high desert (near Death Valley). I often photograph the rodeos and also the motorcycle races out here. Thank you for visiting this part of the world.
I am in Driggs, Idaho at the moment, house sitting and traveling the West this summer. Gorgeous here, and I especially like Wyoming, so many different landscapes. Next stop Wolf Creek Montana for a month.
What makes Eva zu Beck great is her storytelling ability. And appreciation and interest in other cultures. If you watch any (and all) of her videos, they all have storytelling in them. She always pulls cultural components into her videos. She broadens peoples minds with her deep level of cultural knowledge of far flung countries throughout the world. Her approach, her style, and her knowledge base makes her so much farther beyond any typical travel youtuber. She's a storyteller. A culture expert. And a joy to listen to and watch. Raw and real. A true delight. What a pleasure.
First of all, I have to say, that's probably the best rodeo coverage I have ever seen. Your camera work was incredible. So, as to the toughness of the competitors, just living on a ranch in Montana requires a certain amount of toughness. Hell, just living through a winter in Montana requires a certain amount of toughness. It's a big, rough country to live in, and if you aren't facing a certain amount of fear and challenge, you are probably not doing it right.
@@jacquesstrapp3219 Making a fire up in Nunavut is a real challenge, the only tree you will find is in a shopping mall in Iqaluit, many of my Inuit coworkers lost toes and fingers when hunting caribous and walrus, a 500lb walrus has to be brought into the boat by a single man the others counter balance the boat, my female Inuit coworker shot her first polar bear last year, shared the meat with her village and made boots and gloves with its hide. My Swiss ancestors were cow-herders in the Alps for 1000 years, carrying 200lb of cheese on a rack on their back down to the valley, some later worked as guides bringing British upper class ladies up to 15'000 feet mountains on a chair rack. I did a few nights in snow caves as mountaineering soldier, didn't even had to make an igloo there were 20 foot snow to dig down and make a nice snow hole, also no fire there either at over 12'000 feet, also we had to bring our ammo up there as well plus heavy MG's, rockets and mines, even the food we had to carry, seems the path was to dangerous for mules...also did a few bivouac nights in Winter time, no fire either..lol
Eva...you've seemed to grasp the meaning of "American culture" better than most young US citizens! Thank you for your vlog... continue the experience. Blessings....
As the time went on..and I watched this video hearing you say how these Americans had NO FEAR.. I began to feel proud in a way. Yes Americans are tough especially Cowboys my family were ranchers and horse riders.. in my generation we aren’t anymore. But this was a little insight into my ancestry.
you owe it to yourself to atleast learn how to ride a horse and pass that on to your kids so they can do the same. keep your family's culture alive or you lose it completely. all the best and have a great 4th of july weekend
I have a small story of country toughness. I'm a doctor. Grew up on a farm, bucked hay, mucked out stalls, built fence, and tended animals all my young life, so I know farmer mentality. One day at work, I saw this teenage girl, who lived on a family farm. She came home from school, and set about doing her chores. One of her horses stepped on her foot, and broke two of her metatarsals. Must have hurt like a son of a gun. Did she call 911, and come in by ambulance? I mean, I've had people call an ambulance for far less. But no, she finished her chores, then drove herself in, using one of the family pickups. It had a standard transmission, no less. I looked at her swollen, purple foot, then at her calm face, and asked her how bad it hurt. "Oh, pretty bad." she remarked matter-of-factly, smiling sweetly. She let me splint it, declined pain medicine ("I took some Advil before I left the house", she remarked), and drove herself home. I imagined her recounting the injury to her parents when they got home from work. They expressed sympathy, and asked how she was, but didn't over-react. At least, that's how I picture it. This girl wasn't born this tough. She learned it. She was cheer-leader pretty, and tough as nails.
It's interesting watching you go through a rodeo knowing that you're polish and the horse culture that Poland came out of. I hope you find it interesting that some of the most famous cowboys actually have Polish ancestry.
I grew up ranching and on the rodeo circuit. Most of the events are pieces of a ranch work skill. So having the skill to say rope and tie a calf or rope and isolate steer are things you must do in the pasture to usually doctor or inoculate the animal. So being skilled at doing it fast and well is easier on the animal. We love our animals! (all ranch animals from the chickens, cows to the horses and the dogs get fed BEFORE people! Its a rule we all practice from childhood!) The bucking horses is a skill for training horses and the bull riding is for fun. All the bucking animals are usually bred to rodeo and come from a long line of good bucking gene lines. It is their only job and they enjoy it and the good ones become famous and household names in ranching households. The good buckers also get more breeding time ;-P to make more good bucking stock! Its a life style and everyone loves and helps each other unlike many other sports. You would be shocked how people competing against each other will share $, vehicles, trailers and often even share horses to help each other! (by the way I have lived and worked on 5 continents and own a passport) God Bless and hope you come back!
It's perfectly normal to have a crush on a cowboy! It's interesting to see your impression of some of our all time favorite pastimes. How did you like being call "mam" so much? We are generally a God fearing, manner minding state!
I was just thinking that at least one of them was cute and then she askes that question. I think it is more the gentle smile, the confidence and the good manners. God fearing isn't a thing said in most EU countries. Because fear is something negative, reserved for evil things here.
@@MissMoontree Organized religion has gotten to be a pretty ugly thing in America. Often used as an excuse for doing evil things. These are hard times in this country.
Root beer, boom, you made the right choice. Hopefully you'll get the chance to try a good root beer at some point instead of one of the fake ones. It's probably sweetened with corn syrup or aspartame or something. If you ever come across Bundaberg, grab it, it's heavenly. Also Sioux City Sarsaparilla is really good.
Not weird to crush on a cowboy. Its a thing 🤣 love to see you shedding positive light on rural American culture and more importantly experiencing it for yourself. Much of our culture cannot really be understood until you experience it and it feels like we are constantly having to fight to defend and preserve it from people who have absolutely zero experience of it. One example in particular is firearms. When i was younger from time to time friends would bring their new collage friends back to our hometown to visit. These were people who had never experienced life away from the city and usually had negative preconceived notions of firearms amoung many other things. They often also expressed fear of them but after a few days of some proper education on handeling them, shooting them, and why we have them, most of the people had a very different and positive opinion on them. Some even wanting to get their own afterwards
So cool watching your expressions during the rodeo. I was raised on a ranch, started riding bulls and learned how to drive at age 8. Use to compete in rodeos until I was 14. You should get a few thousand emails from young cowboys offering to teach you to cowgirl. American cowgirls and cowboys are a special breed. That was your first rodeo...! lol. In case you aren't aware, "this ain't my first rodeo" is an expression Americans use meaning it isn't the first time they've done something. So from now on for you, this ain't your first rodeo, hon. You're absolutely beautiful too.
As someone who grew up riding horses and competing (in show jumping lol) I loved what that first young woman said about putting in the work and showing off her horse
Took my cousin Rosemarie to her first rodeo (the famed gladewater rodeo in East Texas) during her holiday trip from Edinburgh a few years back. She was just as blown away. She REALLY enjoyed the mechanical bull. And she also got a crush on a cowboy (must be something to those tight jeans and hats). Glad you enjoyed your time. It's nice to see American western culture through the eyes of outsiders. It kind of gives a true glimpse and is an eye opener to Americans as to how they are viewed by others. Safe travels and enjoy young lady.
Now that you've actually been to a rodeo you can use the phrase "this ain't my first rodeo".
damn, beat me to it
Haha! I was getting ready to comment the same exact thing.
I was going to say, that's kind of a compliment "This ain't his first rodeo" meaning he/she knows what they're doing so wasn't quite sure how people took it when she asked if this was their first rodeo. Could come across as an insult, but didn't seem like anyone took it that way. But yeah, now she can say that! 'course, wear the hat next time.
😂, She'll have to wait to use that phrase when she's at her second one.
Surprised one cowboy didnt pick you up to be honest
I love it when someone acknowledges that American culture is in fact culture.
@NVMVNV shut up
@NVMVNV Do a little research. The concept of the Pow-wow (and I have been to many) didn't even exist until after the indigenous people began interacting with Europeans.
People who say, "American's have no culture" are most often city dwelling, America hating, liberals who have never spent any time traveling our open spaces and small towns.
@NVMVNV Americans originated from many different PLACES and have contributed aspects of their cultures to the local culture. That doesn't make the local culture any less unique. Its a lot like language. Many different countries speak English, for example, and we are able to generally understand one another. However, there are many regional dialects within each country wherein the people put their own unique spin on the language. Culture is no different.
Rodeo = Mexican culture
When you've been around things like the Rocky mountains, small town america, and rodeos all your life, you kind of forget how special it is until you see it from the perspective of somebody who hasn't been exposed before. It was fun watching her excitement.
Grew up in Wyoming and I hope we never lose this. People forget how ancient of an art this really is. Human beings have been showing off their ability to stay on and control an animal for tens of thousands (maybe 100,000) years. It's a very deep part of our collective psyche. "Safety Culture" worries me. There are things that are more important than being safe.
💯💯 💯
Spanish Vaquero de Leon family statue at Austin Capitol
Yup. Grew up here in Polson. Seeing my home through the eyes of someone who has never seen it before... the Mission Mountains as she came over Ravalli Hill... Pretty special.
America is the continent, the country is the United States.
I drove through Idaho and Montana with 5 other young British soldiers in 1981. We ended up in Sandpoint. What great people and a wonderful night in a bar with a 'Bucking Bronco' electric bull. The locals had never laughed so much in their lives. We were so hopeless but very keen to impress the ladies.
"These people are tough..." Yes, ma'am. They are. It's easy for outsiders to look at the US and think our success has made us soft. But there are millions of rural Americans who work hard every single day of their lives, and they are ALL tough as nails. If you aren't tough, you won't survive that life. That really applies to all rural people across the planet actually. Never underestimate a farmer or rancher.
Too true !
Who needs farmers and ranchers? It's not like they feed us or anything. Lawyers and politicians: The really productive people.
@@richardfabacher3705 lol yup , seems that way
@@walterdavis4808 I had a student in a college freshman English class who insisted stores grew meat in plastic trays.
@@richardfabacher3705 The sad thing is science has already found a way to grow meat. It doesn't taste right, yet nor have the right consistency, but lab grown meat is real.
I thought this would be disrespectful, I’m pleasantly surprised. America is a beautiful, wild, rugged, surprising place. Thank you for taking time to get to know us. We are a crazy, proud, passionate and loving people.
I’m happy you showed the entire crowd showing Respect for the National Anthem and Old Glory. Thanks for the respectful video.
Yes we are.
There is no "we" in America. America has been a deracinated nation when they open up immigration in 1965 to the third world. The United States is in crisis, the country’s problems are profound, intrinsic, without solution, and worsening. When a population reaches the point of despair, even desperation, when it sees a darkening future for itself and its children, people yearn for a strong man who will forcibly put things right. Yet it is unlikely that helicopters of Marines from Quantico will descend on the White House and announce the dictatorship of some general. Military officers are too well paid and comfortable to worry about the country. It is hard to imagine an American Mussolini. Trump is a caricature and no one else comes to mind. Yet “unrest” -less euphemistically, “chaos” on the order of Mr. Floyd’s massive riots, is possible. We have seen it. We can see it again.
Consider America today. By comparison with Japan, China, Korea, it is a barbarity, a dumpster, an asylum, an abattoir, an astonishment. San Francisco loses conventions because of needles and excrement on the sidewalks. Almost weekly we see multiple shootings in stores, high schools and, now, grade schools. Murders of whites by blacks run at thirty a month, the news being suppressed. In cities across the country crime is out of control, the tax bases moving out, bail abolished so criminals are freed in hours. Stores leave to escape undiscouraged shoplifting and robbery. Seven hundred homicides a year in Chicago, 300 in Baltimore, and at least twice as many shot but survive, similar numbers in a dozen cities. For practical purposes, law does not exist in these ungovernable enclaves. Sexual curiosities, once called perversions, flourish with American embassies hoisting flags in support of transsexualism. Mobs topple historical statues. Many tens of thousands live on sidewalks and a hundred thousand a year die of opioid overdoses. The country drops math requirements and English grammar in schools, AP courses, and SATs as racist. The economy declines, jobs have left for other climes, medical care is beyond most people’s means, government is corrupt and incompetent, and wars are unending. There is actual hatred between racial, political, and regional groups. Ominously, gun sales are up.
@@virtualpilgrim8645 there was no point in writing all that when you could have said it in two sentences.
@@austin3873 thank you. I'll try harder... give me a thumbs up
I hope you realize they your videos actually go a long ways to make Americans appreciate their own culture. It's refreshing to see my culture through the eyes of someone else.
Jonathan Sauder AKA "Angry.battlefielder"
We need to share this so maybe more Americans can see how special our western culture really is!
Thanks I appreciate that observation. I'm very tired of this constant contempt for/dismissal of the US from the younger generations, spurred (haha) by social media/groupthink/whatever's going on in universities. It's like a sort of hollow replacement for true purpose or virtue in life, which require sacrifice and work and personal responsibility. Much easier to dismiss something, ridicule the entire structure that gave rise to your existence, and view yourself as a unique victim of history, a poor helpless soul planted in the very culmination of human corruption.
America has it's share of problems, no doubt about that. But it's nice to appreciate its values as well. The idea that it's too young or too powerful or too materialistic to have a culture is just ridiculous, but it's a growing idea these days.
I will never again say we Americans don't have our own culture.
@Saunder This is why everybody should travel internationally and why Americans are so divorced from common attitudes worldwide to a greater degree than many-most other first-worlders.
Bull riding is not American culture... It's Texas culture, because it borders Mexico where bull riding originated.
I was born in Guatemala city but came to Texas on my 5th birthday. I've always appreciated the culture here and assimilated to become a proud American and Texan. As I've always said "Texas" is a state of mind rather than a state. Thank you Eva for allowing us to see things from a different perspective and appreciate all cultures!
Being a native Texan I have to say it is best to be your original self if you are moving to TX. We value originality and respecting your roots. While you may live among Texans please do not try to become something you are not. Like I said we value and respect others who are not from TX who do not forget their roots or their culture.
You “came” here. Just one day you live in Guatemala, the next day you come to a country that’s not yours and start stealing from the taxpayer. That’s so awesome
@@deborahlarive7711 He was here from when he was a little kid. Texas culture is all he knows. He is a Texan. End of story.
@@MissCleo24 it’s because America, the country everyone comes to for a “better life”, was made by Europeans and nobody else. All countries “Mayans” made suck, all countries Europeans made are fantastic. Your welcome you ungrateful piece of crap
As a born and raised Texan, you have summed up exactly what it means to be Texan. You have also made me happy the way you said becoming and American. Much love from one Texan to another.
As an American it is so refreshing to see my country through the eyes of a European. Thank you for these videos. I am enjoying them very much.
Agreed. I forgot how cool we were/are. Helps me through some of the recent craziness. Merica.
When you get away from the coasts the USA, the people are more open to strangers. And people who talk funny, I’m from Oklahoma that’s why I talk funny.
@@dirtfarmer7472 I beg your pardon, I moved from Oklahoma all over the United States with construction work and finally settled in a south suburb of Chicago I keep trying to tell these people up here that I don't talk funny they do and if they don't, believe me, I can take him home to my County and show them several hundred people the sound just exactly like me.
Shout out to the cameraman exerting LEGENDARY self control keeping himself from cracking up at her reaction to the bullriding. Amazing video Eva, thank you!
I thought he was going to say "Lady, could you please be quiet for the recording."
I would have kept it in as well. definitely would have offered to show her around after the rodeo.
He was all smiles🙂
He was seeing the job he's probably taking for granted through beautiful fresh eyes To hear Eva hoot and holler and shocked by bulls being riden probably made his day.
I had the same thought 😂 guy did a great job not giggling at her lol
“If you don’t take a few bumps in life, you haven’t experienced it.” Truer words have not been spoken.
There will be trouble no matter what, why borrow it or volunteer for it?
Then again I did volunteer for the military and sent into a warzone straightaway. I was a young buck and had no fear of death. Hard to believe that was me.....yet I lived to tell about it. Amazing. Thank God ! I like this plucky Polish girl. She is infectious.
yeah that's america in general
i resent people that try to change that
My family and I visited a rodeo for the first time in Prescott/Arizona in 2019. It was our first trip to the United States and we simply loved the rodeo and the whole country and culture. Very impressive land! And very friendly and warmhearted people. God bless America! Greetings from Germany.🇺🇸🇩🇪
Thats the oldest ongoing rodeo too! Nice that you got to experience it🙌
My mom and dad took us a few times to rodeos in AZ and it was always a great time.
Iirc, we even went to some up on the rez and oh man... I miss it.
The smell, the sounds, and just atmosphere as a whole :)
Like you Eva, I grew up in Central Europe. Except, I endured communism. Living in the US for over 40 years. Furthermore, the US military took me to many places, to include long term in West Germany, Colombia, Peru and others. Culture is a funny thing. To some is the classical music, to some is salsa dancing and to others, it’s rodeo and such. Whomever said that there is no culture in the USA lied to you, just like they lied to me 40+ years ago. It is just different from others’. This is a big country with broad cultural diversity. Enjoy! 🇺🇸
Thank you!
I think people in other countries just boil it down to, "The U.S. is all gun culture", which is ridiculous. Just drive to different states, and you find out what their thing is. We have New Orleans, Louisiana; we have the coastal culture of surfing and fishermen/women. We have the out West culture, we have the Native culture. Where I live there is a persimmon festival, because we have plentiful native persimmons in our state. When I travel out of state, I usually ask them what kind of festivals they have, or I check out an antique shop because that could tell me some of the history of the state. One of the southern states I drove through, I went to an antique shop and found slave manacles and chains. I was shocked, but I guess it didn't happen so long ago. That state also is known as a music state, where aspiring musicians go to get famous, if possible. So, it isn't all bad.
Most fascinating to me was meeting a former moonshiner, so I got to ask him questions on whether he knew how to tell if it was moonshine or wood alcohol (a.k.a. methanol, deadly toxic). The guy's method, by the way, was to shake the moonshine in a clear jar and look at the bubble, which seems kin of risky in my opinion but that's what the man said. He said wood alcohol wouldn't make bubbles when shook. Moonshine does.
My Mom's people were originally from Kentucky, and so Mom has memory of making apple molasses (which I've never seen on the store shelves, but basically you take cider and boil it down into molasses). My grandpa used to make homemade moonshine, but Grandma made him give it up. He still made brandy in some secret still, though, and drank it every Christmas with his boys while they also played Euchre.
I can't imagine people feel so superior that they would say we have no culture. I suppose these are descendants of the same people who went to other countries where the natives wore different kinds of attire, and the observers, being so small minded, decided they were primitive and lacking culture.
Communism is a plague, sorry you had to endure it. Like the cancer that it is, I've even seem many waving the communist flag here in the USA, mostly foolish, spoiled college kids who've never had to deal with it.
@H.U.N.K. Indeed. It is so sad to see. They refuse to listen to those who endured those conditions. Today the word "refugee" is watered down. When I escaped Hungary, it actually meant something and I would have been imprisoned as the enemy of the people, should I have gotten caught. Nowadays, one is a refugee if claims a disagreement with a neighbor. I certainly don't blame those who are looking for better economic conditions, but our system that allows this insanity. Anyway, God bless the USA! 🇺🇸
Damn man that’s wild, I am glad you found a home here in America
I grew up in the western United States, around this kind of stuff, and I guess I really took that for granted. I thought that my life was pretty average and boring , but I guess to some people it's quite unusual. I guess not every child got to wander the wilderness, ride horses, or learn how to hunt and butcher an animal like I have. All of that time spent in the wilderness has come in handy.
I now work as a first responder in a rural community, and in my spare time, I volunteer for search and rescue. I guess we really take for granted how lucky we really are in life until some one from another country comes along and gives you an interesting new perspective
Im from Dallas, a large city and I ALWAYS loved going to the rural areas my cousins lived and shoot guns outdoors, and hike for miles and actually be able to eat fish that I caught
It DOES sound like you've had a blessed life and life experiences. Thanks for your SAR work. Stay grateful.
As someone from Arizona, I only recently started embracing my local heritage more, here it seems like its fading because of lack of interest, which is sad.
It's unusual to anyone that hasn't grown on horseback. It looks weird and dangerous to us (while dressage, for example, is just weird horse dancing). The main reason is it being chaotic: you can control a trained horse, somehow, but a bucking bull? I come from a climate as cold and as northern as Canada, all shown is completely weird to me.
I wander if figure skating, the sport I've grown up with, looks the same to people unfamiliar with it. Our training is a bit like those rodeos - so that to learn a new jump, one has to fall in attempts of doing it about 10 000 times. Fall - get up - repeat.
I do have some experience with the vilderness, but with the vegetables, fish and mushrooms, not with hunting nor cattle. The most significant cattle in my climate are grass feed milk cows, they're chill and there's not that scale and emphasis on hearding them. They're sort of holy and respected in local culture. In grasslands where cattle is a bigger thing then plants it is, so in dry grasslands several thousand kilometres from me there are also weird horse sports.
Local commmon person's horses historically could only tow a carriage or plow, but not be ridden, horses for riding would be expensive.
I remember when my wife's family came for our Wedding in Dallas Texas, from Switzerland. They had never been to Texas before and wanted to see the Ft. Worth Stockyards and the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma. These are things that many of us take for granted, but for them, it was one heck of an adventure and seeing the look on their faces when I took them to these places will always make me smile! ( I returned the favor by being blown away visiting Switzerland a few years later! )
So smiling at, "I think I have a crush on one of those cowboys."
Don't under sell yourself. You're independent spirit is exactly what the American west, and being a cowboy is all about.
Tell them your story and they'll be impressed too.
Kids are a little bouncy until they are 20ish pain dies quick and turns into inconvenience at worst.
Excellent perspective. I didn't even think about it this way.
Hope she doesn't become a buckle bunny. 😉😄
The cowboy lifestyle is the loner. The ladies love you but you know you cant be tied down so you steal a kiss as you ride away.
@@dojocho1894 Garth Brooks made a song about that danged ol' rodeo...
Thank you. Usually what we get from Europeans is a put down of everything American. Most Americans in the middle states away from the coastlines are hardworking people who grow the food, raise the cattle and build things that make this country great. It's a nice change to see a European enjoy a slice of America that is completely our own.
Even the parts of the west coast states that are inland you find an entirely different mindset. Inland California is a different world than coastal California. The odd part about the coastal people is they don't even consider the inland people that grow the very food they eat in their fancy restaurants to be their social equals. Calling them snobs is an understatement.
@@Anon54387 disgusting
Hopefully this horrendous woman and her delusional beliefs don’t rub off on anyone
@@Anon54387 funny how I often see comments from rural people disparaging urban people for their snobbishness, but rarely if ever the reverse, and then only in the context of stories about political controversies where politicians from rural areas are doing something that affects everybody. No one looks down on rural people. Rather, urban people tend to just not think about rural people at all.
Yes. There are NO hardworking people on either coast. That's the kind of benighted statement that makes us on either coast wonder how you folks in the middle find your way from bed to the toilet in the morning.
I live in Montana and I’m really glad that you’ve had such a warm welcome. I actually saw you driving on the road today but you were going the other way. All the best for your journey forward.
when clicked this vid i was 100% sure it was going to be some dumb euro crying about animal abuse.🤣😂lmfaoooooo!!!!!!!!
@@investigativeoutcomes9343 A lot of things Americans do are outlawed in Europe.
@@davidmuth4571 It's a shame. Though ironic, because you still have bullfighting and running with the bulls which seem a lot more dangerous!
@@investigativeoutcomes9343 Me too Lol !! But she turned out to be so nice.
@@wayneperry7077 yes, she seems very nice.
It was refreshing to see Eva showing appreciation for something deeply rooted in American culture. Unlike most games and competitive sports, rodeo is the locals coming together putting their WORK on display...demonstrating how good they are at something they do daily living and working on a ranch. Like lumber jacks have all kinds of log-splitting contests and axe vs saw, etc. and farmers have produce competitions...biggest pumpkin or whatever. Just think what the world would be like if everyone was so passionate about being the best at what they do. Thanks to Eva for taking us along! It was good.
Well said!
mad respect for the hat thing
Other than Bull riding at Cherry Point N/C in 1982 I watch Bull fighting in Barcelona Spain in 1981 Med Cruise USS Forrestal
Rodeo and ranching are far from the same, ranchers don't abuse their animals.
Don't forget the animal abuse
I literally teared up at the patriotism, stamina of our folks, good manners toward you and also for your respect and admiration for these folks shown by you. Safe travels and thanks for your videos.
I teared up too! Glad I'm not the only one. This video is such a good example of why I love where I come from, and why I love rodeo!
Get ahold of yourself.
You dont get that kind of quality people in the North.
@@ShellShock11C
Doesn't sound like you've spent much time in "the north".
@@ShellShock11Cthis is literally Montana… what tf are you talking about
Visited my cousins in Colorado Springs last year. She told me they had to sign all kinds of waivers and escort their kids out for the mutton rides. They later went to a rodeo in Montana visiting other relatives. The rodeo just called for any kid in the stands that wanted to come down and they all ran out. Montana is the real deal!
Not to turn your comment into something political, but that is the difference between a blue state and a red state. Colorado used to be more like Montana. My sister's husband has family in Steamboat Springs. Ranchers. When he was a teen he had a right of passage experience with his uncles: eating raw Rocky Mountain oysters.
😬 I shudder to think!@@everythingisaworkinprogres5729
I have to say, seeing America through your eyes, makes me appreciate this country even more....Thank you. :-)
Well said. Really upsets me to see people here condemning our nation 'as if' there was any place actually better on the planet. HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!
@@awakenedspirit7947 Actually, no. With all it's flaws there is still no better example of self-governance and freedom to pursue one's own happiness that has ever existed than the USA. We are not exceptional by luck, it is the intent and purpose of our founding documents which set the course. Not understanding that is the result of a poor education, (sadly, something all too common these days). We don't hide our mistakes, we attempt to correct them. And we keep them visible in our history so as not to repeat them.
Nobody swims the sharks to get 'into' Cuba or Venezuela and the Berlin wall was built to keep people in. Historically, the natural state of man is one of subjection to tyranny.
@@awakenedspirit7947 If you live here, and don't like it....perhaps Canada would be more to your liking. Either way, I hope you find or found a place you're proud to live in.
we laugh at your gun laws and how many mass shootings you have.
@@R.L.KRANESCHRADTT Correct!!! The Best Place on the Planet to LIVE!! PERIOD!!!!
I'm going to be honest, I was a little scared when I opened this video, rodeo isn't always somthing that people understand, and 'cowboy culture' in general is often misinterpreted, being romantized or villinized, especially in the world of social media. As someone who works in the horse industry, and also on the family ranch I just wanted to say thank you for sharing a positive video and taking the time to ask questions and talk to the cowgirls/cowboys. I've never commented on any video ever before, but I wanted to add my thanks for representing and sharing about a way of life that is truly its own important peice of american culture.
Agreed, and thank you for leaving the animal rights stuff out of the video. It’s entertainment and fun and you seemed to enjoy it
It IS cruelty, and that IS the entertainment to these people. Disgusting and abject cruelty to LIFE.
@@livthedream5885 You may wish to read ODYSSEUS REX's comment above. These are men and women exhibiting their talents that are used daily on most farms. There is nothing cruel about it. This is how MOST of us get our meals. It is no different than any other athletic/ skilled competition. Vote with your pocketbook. If you do not find it appealing, do not go to the rodeo, and do not eat meat. For those of us who think otherwise, allow us to exercise our freedom as well please.
To exploit these animals for entertainment is even less moral than for food, IMO. However it’s all cruel, yes…how’d you like to be violently lassoed, thrown to the ground and hog tied? How’s you like your balls tied to make you buck for entertainment? These are sentient creatures. I do not attend rodeos, the zoo, or sea world. I only buy meat for my husband and son, who haven’t joined my vegan campaign. I don’t bother anyone about their diet, as I’m not always consistent myself. This is an area I’m working on, and believe there are better ways to treat farmed animals than we do. I’m comfortable with moral nuance and ambiguity, but we should honestly acknowledge our failures to our fellow creatures.
But if you want people to leave you to your “lifestyle”, you must leave others alone as well (reproductive rights, sexual orientation, etc…). Don’t tell the world you’re pro life while treating life with abject cruelty.
Please, everyone, help free the husband and son of LivtheDream from the abject cruelty of their life. They are sentient beings.
Shout out to the kid at 11:42 telling his buddy to behave during the Anthem. And a shout-out to his parents for raising him right.
I thought the same.
He's a real one
Glad I'm not the only one who caught that.
Yep, I kinda think anyone taking a knee around there would have a hard time getting back up for a while.
Did you catch the Brandon sticker on the pump as she was filling up her gas tank. 😂🤣
As an American from a rural town that grew up around this; this video made me proud. 🇺🇸
I have spent some time in Europe so it was fun ti see her reaction and it made me feel proud too. I.kept laughing when she would ask them what made this rodeo so special. I wanted to tell her absolutely nothing special about this one in particular lol you could find one just like it in every county. Like the guy said, this was his second one that wknd
I also.grew.up with horses and rodeo
I'm impressed. A positive attitude, a typical small town rodeo in beautiful Montana, and honest respect for the local people who put their heart and soul into perfecting their craft. Kudos to you.
I took a few of my family from England to the Rodeo and they were horrified and disgusted by it, and kind of created a bit of scene. And they keep going on and on about the treatment of the animals . I took them around and tried to explain things but they had this closed mind mentality and in the end I had to leave early. Glad you went in with an open mind and enjoyed the sport for what it is
So sad....
The animals don't get hurt...
The riders DO...
Were they equating rodeos with the bull fights or something?
So sad, it goes to show a liberal mindset.
@@Crazyasian123456 I had a US lady berate me for catching and cleaning panfish. I am an animal fan. She must have been a devout vegan.
@@garygullikson6349 heh, reminds me of a story I heard that some animal rights or food activists in Ireland tried suing dairy farmers for not letting their dairy herd graze outside in the winter and feeding them hay.
As someone from Texas it's very cool seeing your reactions and questions when your experiencing it all. It really makes me happy for some reason and It's so cool seeing ur excitement over things we see and understand to be normal
Marco Ayala, Exactly, my thoughts as well. Growing up in Texas, or any western/southwestern state we see it everyday. It was fun seeing her reactions. All in all, it made me proud.
me too😂 it's not often anymore we hear nice things from foreigners and even from ourselves
the reason is you find joy in seeing someone becoming educated in something, teachers once upon a time most likely felt the same way🤔🤔😀👍😁👍🇺🇲🦅🇺🇲
I went to my first or second rodeo idk in the Fort Worth stadium where the first indoor one was held at cuz I’m from Fort Worth and I’ve been to the stockyards and all that but man was it a amazing experience can’t wait to be able to go to billy bobs when I’m older
I am from Los Angeles so not much country life here but my son attended a college that hosts an annual rodeo. It was so fun to visit during that weekend. Cowboys and cowgirls are just the nicest and most genuine people you will ever meet. We still go back even though my son graduated years ago
Come out to Santa Clarita, plenty of ranch’s out here for the country life.
I'm from the U.S. (Kentucky,) and just went to my first rodeo a few years ago, in Cody, Wyoming. It was an awesome experience with good people, good fun, and some super exciting bull riding. I was just like Eva, gasping everytime someone fell off a bull. There was a small dog that helped to rear in the bulls and it kept running between their legs and I was holding my breath the whole time thinking it was going to get trampled. That dog was hardcore.
Thank you for having an open mind going to a rodeo. There has been such a disconnect between rural America and the urban areas. I actually grew up in an urban setting, but most of my family lived in more rural areas, and I currently live in a town of 650 people. I am glad I was able to raise my kids out here. They have seen their uncle, aunt and cousins work hard to raise food for others.
Thank you also for asking questions and learning more. Rodeos came about when oldest cowboys got bored and bragged about their skills. Most every event you watched was part of their everyday life, yes that includes riding bulls, as some did use them for riding, but more often for pulling wagons. Calf tying was used so the cowboy could brand them. Barrel racing shows the skill needed on open range to keep the herd together. Every event has a story. There is a lot of debate as to how these animals are cared for, but that generally comes from people who haven't been around these animals. With bulls and broncs, some of those animals are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to their owners. Just like we insure our houses against damage, those animals are insured against injury, and generally get better health care than most people.
If you are still touring North America, come on down to my kneck of the woods. We are 2 hours east of Denver, Colorado, off I70. There is a lot of history, and good people.
You conveniently failed to mention all the animals who are abused, maimed, and killed in the name of these events. Quit your white washing nonsense. A select few animals are insured, but most are treated like dirt. This outdated blight on American culture needs to end.
A little correction, Rodeos didn’t come from bored cowboys, rodeos originate from Old Mexico where Charros from different Haciendas/ranchos competed against each other. It made its way to north to South Texas, and Rodeos were held too. That’s why almost 100% of the cowboys tools are vaquero (Spanish cowboy direct translation), like Lariat for La Riata (the rope), cowboy saddle is (south) Texan vaquero, Mexican saddle, chaparreras (chaps), cowboy spurs, Texan vaquero, cowboy hat, the cowboy bandana was worn as a “paliacate”.
Rodeo is Spanish for Round Up.
Howdy from South Texas.
Eastern colorado is like a worse version of nebraska
“I think I have a crush on one of those cowboys…”
That’s the most American thing you’ve said so far. ;)
Love this comment, I'm going to guess that unlike many American girls she managed to maintain her composure.
Lol she's not the only one, real manly men 👍 Anyone know if the handsome mature cowboy gentlemen with the lovely bay horse is single?
She is more à butch. I did not think she liked men
I have my cowboy and we have raised 3 cowboys. Well 2 cowboys are here on earth and one cowboy is in heaven
One of those cowboys is my son! We got a lot of mileage out of that!!🤣🤣
If you lived here long enough, you'd find yourself in cowgirl boots, aching to be on a horse. This isn't just a rodeo, it's a way of life. Thanks for the positive video!!!
My brother and his family hosted a foreign exchange student from Thailand and one weekend I took her to a bull riding competition. She got a cowboy hat, ate the rodeo food, and didn't believe me when I said men were going to ride those big bulls.
When that fist cowboy busted out of the chute on that first bull, her eyed got huge and her mouth literally dropped open. Up until that moment she thought I was lying. She loved every minute of the competition and I'm sure it's something she'll never forget.
I remember being a child & telling my Dad "I don't think the bulls and horses like it". And he replied "They love it! They buck the rider, go in the back and tell their friends about it."
I believe it. I had a bird that would ring like a phone when I would take the dogs out, just to stop as soon as I ran back in to answer it. The look on her face the day I caught her.
Your dad should've told you what a flank or bucking strap is. Then you would understand the animal's real level of enjoyment.
Yes! Bucking stock are selected specifically BECAUSE they love to buck! And think about it - they work 8 seconds at a time once a week, only in the summer. They then spend all winter on open range, basically being a wild horse, but well-fed. Damn good job if you can get it.
as a Horse owner for 50 yrs...Horses love a job.....
@@VivaToddVegas those straps are on only for a few minutes. I've also heard that some bucking horses go on to become working horses.
While living throughout the South Pacific, I was told many many times (especially from folks that had never been to the US) that the "Us has no culture."
Quite the contrary, the US has almost all of the cultures of the world in some way, shape, or fashion. Culture is everywhere here and if one isn't careful and paying attention, they might just trip and fall over it.
Great vid as usual Eva, take your time and soak it all in!
It’s just the all out attack on wh1te people, as you know we control the world from birth.
Not even that. The US has its own culture, you just have to leave the liberal coastal cities to experience it.
I think people from small countries just don't realize that there is literally every culture in the US. Every decent size city has a little Italy, China town, latino area etc.
@@patfranks785
I'm old enough to remember when America was all white and it had its own unique culture most commonly called "Americana". It was unique to America and it was everywhere. Now maybe you don't know it because because someone the the floodgates open and it was inundated and overwhelmed but all the other cultures poured on top of it. It still had a pulse, though it's had to see these days.
@@fionnmaccumhaill3257 Americana hasn't disappeared. It's just been copied by almost every other country. So that it doesn't seem that distinct anymore. I mean, look at China. In a few decades they went from being an agricultural society, to being a more modern society that now build computers. They took most of our style and technology and made it their own.
I am SO glad to see a European acknowledge American Western Culture as Culture!!!
If you have as much interest as you seem to, I suggest going to working ranch.
If you true fear, ride brake on a herd of 500 yearlings coming down a mile long slope!
Here is the real deal about rodeo. Except for the daredevil excitement of bull riding, the rest of it is actual cowboy skills that you use on a working ranch, stock yard, etc.
If you want to see even more real and realistic cowboy skills, go to a RANCH Rodeo.
These skills are rooted in generational families and actually have their beginnings back as far as Genghis Khan. Cowboy skill, as practiced in North America, came down from the caballeros of Spain and Portugal.
Team roping and calf roping are skills used to catch cattle on the open range or in large pastures.
The bareback and saddle bronc riding comes from the need to acclimatize and train horses to work with us on the ranch.
On a family ranch, you start riding with Dad and Mom before you can walk, and you learn animal husbandry and care at a very early age. So there is no fear, because you how to not get into trouble with animals, and how to get out of it if you do get into trouble.
Omg I just went to my first rodeo recently too (in Texas). We don’t have them in Scotland either! And I agree - so much culture to be found in the US when you look closely. Great video 🤠 P.S. - I bought a cowboy hat too and they loved that I wore it 🤠
Gig 'em!
The only people who say "there's no culture in the US," or that it's "less than" are self-loathing progressives who think that saying such things endears them to Europeans. My only advice is to avoid people like that at all cost.
@@1995texasaggie WHOOOP
With all the energy you spent on the excitement of the rodeo, I'll bet you felt pretty dead afterwards.
Congrats! I grew up doing rodeos in Oklahoma in the 60's. What a blessing it was. The country's changed a lot since back then, but the spirit of America which is kept alive in the Cowboy world hasn't changed much. Nice hat.👍😁
"It's an actual bull... with horns... it's not a sheep!" Hahahaha... Too funny. Love your reactions, so real, spontaneous, just beautiful, like you. Thanks for being you.
I was amused when she told the people at the concession stand that this was her first rodeo since there is that idiom saying this isn't my first rodeo.
Good on you for coming in as a vegetarian, European and being open minded. Such a drastically different culture than you are used to and you respected it for what it was, a different culture.
It's not a culture. It's an idiotic, cruel activity that's been done for far too long, but that doesn't make it American culture. American here and I don't want to be associated with such barbarism any more than I would Spanish bullfighting. Calling something culture does not negate its horrific nature.
@@SheilaR.08 I agree-
@@SheilaR.08 you have no idea what culture is.
@@SheilaR.08 tell us you know absolutely nothing about rodeo without telling us. I raise bucking stock and I’ve rodeod the majority of my life. There’s nothing barbaric about it. The animals aren’t intentionally harmed, although accidents CAN happen. Why would I abuse my bulls and horses when they’re worth millions of dollars? Use your brain and actually take the time to do research and maybe find someone that’s involved in it to learn from instead regurgitating uniformed myths you’ve read on the internet.
@@SheilaR.08 This guy really just compared Rodeo to Spanish bullfighting. Ya know, where they slowly kill the bull after torturing and weakening it and drugging it.
LOL, I thought this was going to be annoying and that she was some kind of judging prude but what a breath of fresh air she is, thanks for this glimps into proud American life
Well, usually the Americans are the prude ones. Projecting too much?
I love to see an outsider perspective on the rodeos that I’ve grown up competing in. It’s always hard to see people bashing it because they don’t understand so seeing someone so open and understanding is refreshing. Great vid!
We have our own in AUS
@@linmal2242 do you call it a rodeo
@@linmal2242 I've met some Australian bull riders few of them are pretty damn good.
"They have no fear." If that isn't culture, I don't know what is. Makes me proud to be an American. Thank you, girly.
Rodeos aren’t even an American thing it’s a Mexican Spanish tradition and it was discovered and adopted in the states don’t be ignorant and at least look into it.
My father grew up on a working ranch in south Texas and they used cowboy and vaquero interchangeably. The rodeo she went to is American as there are differences between the two from the saddles, the way they throw a lariat, the events and even the way they handle the same tasks. My grandfather threatened to shoot a vaquero who worked for him if he ever used “Spanish spurs “ on any of the horses again. The idea of rodeos come from Mexico along with the cowboy but has changed to be something American.
That used to be America's motto. No Fear. We can do anything.
Today half the population has to find a safe space when somebody says boo to them.
@Easttowest nah it’s our culture and you’re countrymen adopted it even now it’s still our tradition it’s been that way ever since those hundreds of years passed you people just adopted it it because it was cool it’s an actual lifestyle for us Spanish North Americans in Mexico 🇲🇽 all over the country, because when people want to see rodeos they go to Texas or the west when people down here want to see a rodeo or bull riding we just do it or go to the nearby ranches, I mean no disrespect when I close this off by saying this but you Anglo North Americans aren’t even original in your actual culture so you claim that it’s yours but can’t accept that you adopted it, realistically it’s our tradition and way of life down here in Mexico 🇲🇽 you people just do it for the hell of it and try painting this delusion to all that come from Europe or Asia claiming that it’s American and that’s where I have to correct your ignorant claim.
@@guyfalcurious762 it hasn’t changed to be anything American it’s just adopted into Anglo American 🇺🇸 southern culture due to its closeness to Mexico and considering the west was part of the first Mexican republic 🇲🇽
Thank you so much for highlighting my culture. Rural America is a unique part of the whole, found across the states and rodeos have always been a fun way of bridging the gap between agricultural/ranching folks to those who might come watch. We love to share our passion, family and culture ❤ seriously, thank you for appreciating something that can be so heavily mocked and hated by people who have never been or don’t even want to understand why we do what we do.
I’ve never been to a rodeo and want to understand. I mean this with all sincerity, from the animals perspective are they okay with all of this? Do they ever get hurt? Or just have to endure whatever is being done to them for human entertainment? I really do want to understand and hope it is that the cowboy/girl really does try and not actually hurt the animal.
@@Kaia6485 it’s understandable to have concerns. Yes sometimes the animals can get hurt, just like the people. The sport used to be a lot more dangerous and harder on both people and animals, but like all things it’s evolved with our own understanding and education. No one cares more than the people competing and those raising the animals. Yes there is always a bad apple here and there, but the rest of the community is quick to put a stop to abuse and neglect.
At every rodeo there is a vet on standby as well as an EMS team for the people. Most of the animals actually do enjoy it, or see it like a job. They have a lot of training and are used to it. Like the Bulls, broncs, even the roping steers.
It’s high adrenaline, and is exciting to watch. Although there are professional athletes in rodeo now, but animals and people, it’s a sport that never forgot where it came from. Which was ranch hands coming together in a community to relax, enjoy company, show off their ranches livestock and even do business. In many ways it’s still like that.
@@kcarter0265 Thank you for the response, everything you said makes sense. It’s good to hear there’s an emt on hand for the people and animals and that everyone’s safety is an utmost concern.
@@Kaia6485 if it isn't dangerous it probably isn't worth doing.
Thank you for allowing me to see my country through your eyes. You moved me to tears of pride for my people and my nation. We are our best outside of the big cities. I hope you get a cowboy. No doubt, all of America loves you.
This episode brought me to tears and I think it's because I am recalling memories from my childhood with my dad, who has passed on. Thank you for highlighting what is American culture for you Eva, because you're right, we American's take this sort of stuff totally for granted. There's a big difference between city folk, and rural here, and most of what folks see on TV is how hollywood portrays this country, not necessarily how it is in reality. I love how each state, does have it's own culture and vibe. I'm so happy Montana is treating you well. Much love and prayers, be safe on your journeys.
It brought me to tears as well. Memories and emotions and being a local here in Montana, growing up this way and watching her experience it with such joy. It was an emotional video for some crazy reason, I cried 😀 I really loved watching this.
And most of Hollywoods portrayals are what I consider false garbage. I'm glad she enjoyed herself. Seems like she might be an alright person, even though I do find the whole Vegan thing weird and confusing.
As a pregnant late 20’s has been barrel racer, I’m literally crying at at your video, the excitement, the recognition that it very much so is a culture, and your all around support for (in the opinion of many) the most American Sport that exists. I’m so glad you enjoyed, and I can’t thank you enough for bringing a little bright light to a very special thing.❤️
I'll have you know the female barrel racers were the most exciting thing for me to watch. Full on hard charging adrenaline rush. I grew up in Sikeston Missouri, right next door to the Jaycee Bootheel rodeo that drew all the big country acts from Kenny Rogers to Willie Nelson. I sold snow cones and sodas at every rodeo. They lasted for several days. Thanks for the fun!
Sad. Barrel racing isn't a sport. At the end of their careers each horse walks strangely and place weight oddly. The mere practice literally changed them. Not to mention the horrid spurring when studies have shown horses feel more pain than us. Tradition shouldn't mean cruelty
@@alongcamekarma Don't believe everything you read on a PETA website. Barrel racing horses absolutely love competing. And not a sport? You have no idea what you're talking about.
@@mplsgordon2 I worked with horses for eighteen years and barrel raced for twelve, until I went to college and wrote a thesis on the effects of barrel racing. Horses are driven neurotic due to training regiments (but yay, fun, right? Puhleez.) hooves and tendons and permanently damaged in every long term barrel racer. This has been supported by numerous scientific studies recently released. Not to mention how unregulated it is. Studies have also shown kicking a horse doesn't make it go faster and is actually the cause for many injuries horses relieve, and that those specific injuries are higher in barrel racers because of the treatment.
Next rodeo ya go to, ask every barrel racer you see if they can show you how to do an emergency dismount. Just say you've heard of it but you're nervous to try. See how many even know how to do it in theory, and how many actually can. Now that is kinda fun.
I got tired of abuse and ill fitted tack.
Btw. Peta isn't a reliable or scientific source, especially since they have the highest kill rate over any shelter in the country and have harmed animals many times in their quest. But...you tried...
@@alongcamekarma Thank you for a thoughtful response. While I was never a barrel racer myself and never will be, there's several in my close family and friends. And I've been around it a lot. I do know how to do an emergency dismount; it was something taught to me as a rider among other, working riders.
I honestly can't imagine rodeos or barrel racing being regulated. If that happened, I'd imagine it would revert to the sort of events I grew up around; 50 to 100 competitors at a private arena on private land.
I can't comment on the studies you mention because I haven't seen them. Perhaps they are valid. In general "studies" reproduce at shockingly low rates, if the data are not falsified altogether. Again, perhaps your studies are better. I'd read them if they're available.
I certainly was unaware that there is a brewing controversy over barrel racing. From what I've seen it's grown from a women's rodeo event to a family event that lets entire families have fun together with their horses.
I have never heard rodeos referred to as being exotic, but your interest and delight is rather captivating🙂
It makes perfect sense when you think about it. Every cowboy there would describe her as exotic
@@daviddawson1718 absolutely!
Everything is exotic to someone else! When I first arrived in the US, just about everything was exotic!
To be fair everything is exotic depending on where you come from. When I moved to Canada people used to laugh at me for getting excited about snow 😂 coz I come from a country where we just have hot/cold/rainy/dry, we don't have snow. So something so regular was foreign as hell to me.
Exotic:
adjective
originating in or characteristic of a distant foreign country.
Thank you for shooting this video for the other American-obsessed Europeans that are watching. I'm really passionate about all-things horses and would like to attend a rodeo show in the US one day. You should watch Heartland if you're into rodeo shows, there are plenty of scenes with rodeo shows and rodeo show lessons in there. It's not 100% American, the show but close (it's shot in Canada)
Proud to be American. Thank you for enjoying the different cultures, hopefully you travel around more and experience all that the USA has to offer. There is a stigma here from the outside, but its only because of media and ignorant people. Its the best place to be on earth in my opinion. May god bless you on your travels.
Вие и англичаните сте най - простите същества във вселената.. остани си горд простак!
I guess you haven’t traveled a lot, have you ? 😂
@@333Hedgehogs i've traveled enough
RODEO N COWBOY CULTURE CAME FROM MEXICO.
@@kem1233 cowboy culture came from Spain
I love how she started in the stands abd very quickly wound up pressed against the fence as close as humanly possible to the action.
Oh, I think the real reason was to get closer to the cowboys. Something about a crush, I think. Big kudos to Eva for going into the heartland of America, which is the real United States. So many foreigners stay on the coasts when they come here and think those crazies in New York and California represent the real America. So far from the truth. Those people at that rodeo are real, moral, rational, fine Americans, and they are awake, not woke.
@@theloneranger8725 I think her motivation was little bit from column A and a bit from column B….
But yeah, I agree. It was mostly column B. that brought her down there!
🤣👍
@@theloneranger8725 She's not used to being near masculine men. No soy boys at the rodeo
@@birddogz545 Er...Polish guys are some masculine men, don't doubt that. But yeah, since she's here with the cowboys..."save a horse, ride a cowboy."
I was stationed in Spain while in the Air Force in the early 80s. I was amazed to see a rodeo come to town there. We had a guy from Wyoming in my unit and he competed and won in the calf roping event.
It makes sense. The US Westerners learned the rodeo from Mexican vacceros , who learned it from the Spanish.
Oh, my gosh! I was in Spain in the early eighties too. My husband was stationed at Torejon and we saw a Rodeo on base but they were Gypsies! Just about like the American version.
Spain was awesome, yes?
@@saries54 loved Rota.
@@Egilhelmson Not quite. It wasn't the US at the time and want something that was taught or imported for an established people. When the Spanish imported the first cattle into Mexico in the 1500's the Rodeo was more just a way of the vaqueros to show off their skills and cut loose. Entertainment back then was what you made. From there it was just part of the cattle farming culture. Much later the Rodeo would be born as an off shoot to the traveling circus business that had used cowboys to help tend their animals and enter the ring entertaining crowds with their riding and roping skills. In the end, it wasn't something that was just something that evolved out of a job.
What a lovely bubbly person this Eva is. Breath of fresh air in today's society. She's yelling because she's enjoying the moment and not pushing an agenda. We need more of that nowadays.
Eva, in spite of the big show they've become, a hobby or source of income, rodeos were born from actual ranch work. The ability to ride a rank horse on a daily basis, roping and tying stock for various reasons etc.
Pecos Texas lays claim to being the home of the world's first rodeo. I find that a dubious claim given the daily routine of ranch life and competitive nature of most cowboys.
I grew up on a ranch, trust me, getting kicked while treating a maggot infested cut in an onery old cow is not near as glamorous as a rodeo would have you believe.
Opinions vary but most people agree that the first rodeo was held in Deer Trail Colorado in 1869. The rodeo you are referring to in Pecos happened in 1883.
@joelmopar yeah I know what you mean, had one of the worst bruises on a thigh from a horse. Worried it was broke for a bit, then I was wishing it was. Had a friend had 3 toes broken from a horse stomping on’em, luckily it didn’t get the top of the foot. Yeah they don’t say anything about that I bet in the booklet.😂😂😂
It's everyday here in Texas. I've wrecked my body through rodeo, cow and pig working and football. It's a scary high but it's real. Thank you for giving me a new appreciation of American and Mexican culture.
You definitely had the most "culturally indulgent" first time rodeo experience there is. Going to the bigger PBR or NFR events are great, and you'll see some amazing skills on display. But you won't ever have nearly the same experience as going out to a rural Montana town and watching the local competitors. Good on you for seeking it out and just being open about all of it. Its easy for us to overlook how different Rodeo is as a sport to just about anything else on the planet.
As an American it was such a great chance to see how people from other countries see the real us behind the bad press and bluster. We are essentially 50 states that are as difference as separate European countries in so many ways. Vid was respectful and you are addictively fun. Just remember... even in America the West's this mythical place so many of us dream of being part of.
You are very correct on that. I grew up in Indiana most of my life (and I'm half-European, so I've visited a few places there, too), but I didn't get to the West Coast until I was 31 years old. Until then, the furthest west in the United States I had ever been was Texas; I have an aunt and uncle living there, and their kids stayed in the area or returned to it.
A few years ago, I had a different aunt and uncle visit from Belgium, and we showed some things that America is known for. The big thing they went crazy over was the yellow school buses; many of the buses in Belgium, if I remember correctly, are closer to what airport shuttles would be.
There's something about the US that is mesmerizing!! I do hope I can get there at least once in a lifetime to enjoy such amazing places and people❤️
I love living here, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. We have a little bit of everything here
You are welcome here anytime.
Avoid the North.
Stay away from the blue cities then, like Portland, LA, Seattle, SF, Chicago, Austin, NYC, and obviously DC. Most anywhere else is pretty nice.
Then go find a real rodeo like this girl did, that was a real one.
Sadly today people want to erase this and are.
As a native New Yorker I am just as much a foreigner. So fascinating! I wish I grew up like this. Montana is stunning.
Pennsylvania has rodeos. We’re not too far from NY.
That is how I grew-up, and I would have to be paid to ever get on another horse.
I grew up in Montana. All my cousins are rodeo champions. I’m afraid of horses. There ya go.
@@richardbuchanan5497 I would bet no one would offer to pay you.. I can just imagine...
@@g.w.hampton5525 ...it's a figure of speech.....
I watched this video thinking this would be someone else tearing down rodeo thinking we are animal abusers. This is a huge part of American history. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. And youth rodeos are a real common thing too. There is truly no age that can’t compete. Another thing is people in the rodeo world just want to grow it therefore they tend to be real sweet and informing on our sport.
Animal abusers? If I am not mistaken in Spain when they have Bull Fighting after the matadors are finished the bull is merciless stabbed over and over until he dies. Now that is animal cruelty not culture.
yeah, the riders are the ones doing the dumb stuff.
In case you wonder...its less lack of fear...and more the comfort that comes from familiarity, training, and confidence. When you know the animals well, train with them, work with them all week...its almost as if you 'speak their language'. You learn the 'do's and don'ts' until the fear you might have felt at first becomes respect. With show ready horses in particular, some horses take as much pride in their performance as any rider does...they are literally the other half of a team, often the one doing the harder and more complex job. Show riding...my job was to give the correct signals at the precise times, have the gear and tack ready and well fitted, and to never let my posture or movements distract or confuse my horse. We each knew our parts, and thats what made us a good team. I miss those days a lot.
I was the only Asian in many of the places I traveled to in New Mexico, Wyoming and Montana region. It’s actually quite cool to look like an outsider as people are absolutely friendly and eager to show you things around!!!
Really I live in the Idaho, Wyoming Montana area basically 60 miles from each ( Yellowstone National Park, Teton National Park) and we have 4 to 6 tour busses come through daily all summer every day of nothing but Asians.
Granted those are tourist places.
@@clydeacor1911, I don’t think so… as I had lived in the SW for 8 years… I only “looked” like an outsider but I had hiked nearly every trail in New Mexico!
I am very glad (and proud) to hear this!
Thank you for sharing your positive experiences, and hope you have many, many more!
@@michaelharris1455 we just need to be less cynical these days… cynicism even tries to over take our Independent Day!
Having grown up in a very similar cultural environment in Oklahoma, your reactions to this brought me to tears of laughter and joy. Local rodeos like this used to be very common. Today, many of them have become sadly commercialized. You have been given a glimpse of a very traditional community event that is disappearing from the American experience. (By the way, you need a straw cowboy hat for everyday wear ... it would be far less conspicuous than the dress hat.)
I laughed at the "What about insurance" comment. It's too bad she isn't here in Oklahoma as we have some Pow wows going on as well right now.
I have to say, seeing America through your eyes, makes me appreciate this country even more....Thank you.
You got to see a great small rodeo in Montana. A wonderful thing to see. Your excitement and joy was really uplifting to witness.
"They have no fear. No one here has any fear."
Remember, "Courage is being the only one that knows that you're terrified"
Courage is doing something in spite of being terrified.
@@Badge124 That was exactly what the quote is saying.
@@RLKmedic0315 I don't think so. Anyone can know that you're terrified. Courage is doing it anyway. Big difference. 👍
It’s called the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave for a reason.
There are so many better ways to have fun, without the danger. I think it's stupid.
It’s really cool to see someone experience a rodeo for the first time and it makes you think about how fascinating or crazy it looks to someone who hasn’t ever experienced it before.
I never thought I'd ever do anything on a regular basis that someone has on their bucket list.
I'm glad you had fun. 💗
When I first moved in with my adoptive family I knew I was going into a horse family because they did our horse program, it was so cool going to my first rodeo I thought it would be so cool to try out, years later I got my chance they were starting up a bucking horse school just in the city next. It was quite an experience I would have never in my young life ever thought I would be trying this for real. It was probably one of the hardest things I've done was saddle bronc riding, but it was so much fun, the lifestyle, the adrenaline, the people you meet. Traveling with your friends. It was so much fun but I eventually had to quit because I bucked off my horse at a rodeo and broke 6 bones in my lower back. My mother told me I wasn't allowed to ride anymore lol so that ended my career in a hurry but I had fun while it lasted
Honey, NEVER be ashamed of wearing a cowboy hat!
Cowgal hat
To be more complete, wear jeans and boots. Then you will look like a cowgirl. Web search this song: “Get yourself an outfit, you can be a cowboy too”
(Smother’s brothers) I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy.
I'm glad that you came away from your first rodeo with the perspective that you did. The stock is typically very well taken care of and the performance horses are very, very well taken care of. My daughter is 32, has two young boys, and she's been barrel racing since she was 4. I have two of her horses on my pasture. It's a way of life that we take for granted. Your video reminded me of that.
It takes a lot of skill to do any of the rodeo events. They are true athletes.
You all are what great Americans are and the world should know this. Americans all over should respect the midwest and west for this culture. Mexico and Canada also have their own rodeos so it's a part of the Americas as a whole. But watching it in America is phenomenal. I don't appreciate or respect bull fighting such as in Spain and Mexico, but bull and horse riding are amazing!
True animal abusers .
@@paulkoval9138 wrong and stupid! Disrespectful to all involved!
@@paulkoval9138 I hear ya! I can't believe that these organized animal abuse events (aka, rodeos) continue to be legally tolerated this far into the 21st century
@@organican GO away you little sniveling uneducated woke liberal. Until you've lived this life you have NO idea how little animal abused is involved. Until you've owned live stock you have no clue how wrong your whiney comment is. ALL OF THESE ANIMALS ARE GREATLY CARED FOR! This is a way of life whether you like it or not!
i'm from Alberta Foothills west of Calgary.
It's a lot like Montana. Lots of Cowboys.
To be a Cowboy / Cowgirl is loving our country environment , wearing denim and being authentic and peaceful.
A cowboy hat helps complete centredness
I don’t know how different Calgary is, but I’ve lived in Oregon (Pendleton Roundup) Montana and I’ve e NEVER heard of a hat for ‘centeredness’. Kinda makes me think you just live in Alberta, not a cowboy. The hat is to keep the sun off of your head, face and neck. God
@@debbylou5729 yeah I haven’t heard of that terminology in Mexico, or any part of the southwest either….
Maybe it’s just a Canadian thing. 🤷♀️
Brazilian bull riders often have a lot of unique terms for stuff in their rodeo scene. Maybe it’s like that?🤔 lol
Marie and I have seen numerous rodeos. So it was fun to see your perspective on the cowboy tradition in the US.
With enough hard work and dedication, we can do whatever we put our minds to do. If you truly want to learn to ride a horse...you can do it. Then, when you are comfortable in just riding, then you can lean to do some of the other stuff.
About whether you'd be scared...when we are young, we have this invulneralbiility about our lives...so riding a sheep, then a bucking horse, to a bull...is the natural progression. As an adult, our sense of self-preservation kicks in. No thank you,
This was a lot of fun watching it through your eyes. Thanks for sharing this with us.
This was a respectful and interesting video about discovering a rodeo and getting a taste of rural western US culture. I think you handled it wonderfully, Eva. I grew up in the eastern Midwest, but once I moved to the rural West, I realized I'd found my true home. Happens.
Country is big enough for both urban and rural folks to live with their separate cultures, but I don't care for it when one group rags on the other. Should be room for all kinds of different cultures without judgement.
Keep doing what you're doing. Always an interesting view to see the world through your eyes.
Well said.
More people should realize that in the important ways, we are all the same. We all want the same things. The number of bad people around us might be increasing, but we have to remember that the vast majority of people we come across are just like us.
Word
I was born and raised in Houston, Texas. Although I personally wasn't involved in events such as these, the rodeo culture is something I love and respect. As it is certainly part of American culture, I love that you loved it so much. Thank you for this video!!
@Urusovite & the European explorers brought the horses to North America !
I grew up watching the Houston Fat Stock show parade with the real Salt Grass trail riders and then seeing the rhinestone cowboys sing at the Rodeo in the Astrodome.
@Urusovite so do the Europeans for bringing the horses back!
Sugarland here! We enjoy going to the fort bend rodeo!
Thank you so much for recognizing our culture, this is something that drives me crazy when someone from the city says that the US has no culture of it's own. Love the video, if you are ever in Northern CA I would love to take you to a CA rodeo... Yes, we rodeo in CA!
If you get away from the coastal cities, California almost begins to resemble a normal place. It's just too bad that the cities dominate the political landscape. In WA we have a similar problem with the Seattle area dominating state politics.
@@Snipergoat1 -- I give you guys both a thumb's-up, but I'm from San Francisco; somewhat to the left; more liberal-minded than big L; but still all of my friends here are quite normal; way more centrist than you'd imagine: almost all of us have been to rodeo, and I love it. I think Americans at the extremes are trying to pull the rest of us against each other.
I mean California has deep vaquero and cowboy cultural roots.
Europeans often say that too. It is either the culture being unrecognized as such or simple contempt.
Red Bluff Round-up
My Granddaughter won the Mutton Busting one night at the National Western Rodeo when she was 6 years old. I told her to just not let go, and she didn't. Rode that sheep all the way across the arena. What a memory!
Seeing American culture through your eyes is a gift! Have fun!
This was actually beautiful to see, especially during the prayer n the national anthem!!! That actually made me tear up!! N seeing something so American, thru someone else's eyes who's seeing it for the first time just made me feel so much pride n patriotism!!!
@@boblatkey7160 Boo! I'm an atheist, but I'm also a cultural anthropologist, and a community sharing a moment of unity and bonding is a beautiful thing, this is an American ritual akin to jumping in the ring with bulls for graduation day at the Politechnic University as I witnessed down in Ecuador. It's not that these people have no fear, but that they overcome their fear with mutual support. Don't be a hater your whole life...
@@boblatkey7160 Who pissed in your milk? And your remark makes no sense, if you have the ability to stop and think. Take a moment. You see now? Yes! Every culture throughout history has had an exploitative relationship with animals! And you guessed it, like an atheist who has no problem with religion, I'm a vegetarian who has no problem with ranching. Here's a conundrum to tie your little brain in knots for a while: how is it that hunters are the most ardent conservationists?
If by "American" you mean it was something developed in the Americas, then, yeah. It is American. You may want to look into the actual origins of rodeo before you try to identify it solely with the United States. There are a lot of other countries in the Americas that would take issue with anyone claiming this is a uniquely U.S. phenomena; or that the U.S. had any real hand in its origins at all.
@@brandonhall5615 The same is said about everything being claimed in other countries. Your "argument" isn't one. You don't sound intelligent at all. Her statement means, something imbedded in American history.
Example with YOUR statement: China being associated with martial arts.... when other countries can make that statement.
You just want to argue to argue.
To add to this, the US made so many things popular.
So, if by "You may want to look into the actual origins.", YOU may want to look into actually having a cohesive argument, and learn critical thinking.
@@brandonhall5615 If you worked on a ranch and went on a cattle drives or herded sheep in The United🇺🇸States you would understand that this is necessary "work" turned into Competition Fun.
No matter where it came from when, it is necessary.
The techniques that they use have been around for ..a long time.
Just remember, you can be a Vegan, a Vegetarian, and even be a part of PETA and still love the rodeo. The key is knowing what is happening and understanding it before you condemn anything. There is a lot of history in rodeos and the lifestyle as a whole. I'm a part of "The Daddy of 'em all" here is Cheyenne and I love to tell visitors all about it. It's not just the rodeo for us, but the whole 10-12 days of celebration. July 20-30 this year. PM me or send me an email if you'd like to know more.
Poulson is just outside of Missoula, where I used to live and they put on a great rodeo with some of the best cowboys around. Glad you got to see it.
The other two rodeos that are must see are the Calgary stampede and the Livermore rodeo, in the east bay area in California. Billed as "The fastest rodeo in the west" its 3 days of sheer excitement and exposure like you don't get in most places. Some of my best memories while attending Livermore high where our mascot was, you guessed it...
"The cowboys." 😉
Makes you proud of our great country! God Bless Montana and its great citizens.
As someone who competes it’s a breath of fresh air to see someone from Europe go in with and open mind I’ve met one European person at a rodeo and the hated it to the point of accusing my folks of convincing me it was ok to abuse animals when it isn’t abuse to the animals when rodeo stock has a better life than most other animals
Edit : I’m 15 and compete in bareback riding I’m good enough to compete professionally and if u really want to learn this cowboy stuf then lmk I got nothing but time to spare
Nothing like ruff stock. Keep at it buddy.
I agree
Ive helped out on ranches and I've been to rodeo's. those free range animals are big and tuff. Life as a rodeo animal is a lot easier. But people who have never been around it don't know that.
Were they French? 🤣
Glad to see you enjoying the Rodeo! It is a celebration of the historical skills used by American cattlemen. They are a part of every county fair in most of the western states. I have found the people who attend the rodeo to be way more friendly than people at other sporting events in America. Most sporting events in America you can sense some hostility if you are not supporting the home team. The rodeo is about individual effort an achievement. Every participant earns my respect every time.
American culture is very much wrapped up in the cowboy, and it is true American culture. The cattle boom forever changed American expectations in regards to diet and lifestyle that you don't see anywhere else.
American obsession with cars extends from the west & Midwest because we're just culturally *used* to long-distance travel. Europeans don't understand the drive or desire for the most part.
@@bar-1studios the rodeo did not originate in the USA; it originated in central Mexico and from there it spread to all Mexican territories
The historical skills were invented by the Mexican vaqueros
@@vaquero7x Thanks for sharing! Always a good day when I learn something knew! Many western traditions have their origins in Mexico I am certain. The southwestern United States has a great heritage as a result of that fact.
I grew up on a farm/ranch and we went to some kind of rodeo almost every weekend in the summer! My dad was a bull dogger and I started out as his hazer when I was about 9 or 10. As I got a little bigger I really got into barrels and calf roppen and even did some bareback bronc riding which I was more than very good at when I hit 15-17, but in my day (think 50 years ago) they would not allow girls to compete in these area's they tried to keep us in 'girl' sports like barrel racing, pole bending, mutton doggen. I still worked as my dad's hazer until I was about 16 when I started doing my own thing. Love this sport!! I love horses and pretty much every animal in a rodeo. We had a huge bull at home but he was raised by my siblings and I so he was gentle as the family dog, so I use to get on him and pretend he was a bucking bull as he grazing! I still ride horses but I am getting a little old for much of anything else. Hope you really enjoyed you tour of our most beautiful country! Y'all come back now ya' hear!!
I have done more traveling than most people and Montana is in my top 3 of places I've been. I hope you get a chance to check out northern New Mexico, you might expect it to be like Texas but it is nothing like it with its colorful rocks everywhere. The American West is my home and I am very happy to have discovered your channel.
Also, I live next to a rodeo arena in the California high desert (near Death Valley). I often photograph the rodeos and also the motorcycle races out here. Thank you for visiting this part of the world.
I agree about Northern New Mexico. Capulin area is mind-blowing. I always say it looks like a dry Hawaii.
The 4 corners in general! SW Colorado, Flagstaff, Moab, the San Juan......ALL amazing-
I am in Driggs, Idaho at the moment, house sitting and traveling the West this summer. Gorgeous here, and I especially like Wyoming, so many different landscapes. Next stop Wolf Creek Montana for a month.
I’m glad you appreciate my home state. I’m from southern NM but I agree, the north is gorgeous (when it’s not on fire)
What makes Eva zu Beck great is her storytelling ability. And appreciation and interest in other cultures. If you watch any (and all) of her videos, they all have storytelling in them. She always pulls cultural components into her videos. She broadens peoples minds with her deep level of cultural knowledge of far flung countries throughout the world. Her approach, her style, and her knowledge base makes her so much farther beyond any typical travel youtuber. She's a storyteller. A culture expert. And a joy to listen to and watch. Raw and real. A true delight. What a pleasure.
First of all, I have to say, that's probably the best rodeo coverage I have ever seen. Your camera work was incredible. So, as to the toughness of the competitors, just living on a ranch in Montana requires a certain amount of toughness. Hell, just living through a winter in Montana requires a certain amount of toughness. It's a big, rough country to live in, and if you aren't facing a certain amount of fear and challenge, you are probably not doing it right.
Great comment.
Yep, if you aren't facing some fear and some challenge, you probably aren't doing it at all.
so we Canucks must be super tough living up much higher North, also working in Nunavut in the Arctic...we must be super super toughs..
@@jurgbangerter1023 If you're out herding cattle in the weather, you're tough. If you're sitting next to a fire all the time, not so much.
@@jacquesstrapp3219 Making a fire up in Nunavut is a real challenge, the only tree you will find is in a shopping mall in Iqaluit, many of my Inuit coworkers lost toes and fingers when hunting caribous and walrus, a 500lb walrus has to be brought into the boat by a single man the others counter balance the boat, my female Inuit coworker shot her first polar bear last year, shared the meat with her village and made boots and gloves with its hide. My Swiss ancestors were cow-herders in the Alps for 1000 years, carrying 200lb of cheese on a rack on their back down to the valley, some later worked as guides bringing British upper class ladies up to 15'000 feet mountains on a chair rack. I did a few nights in snow caves as mountaineering soldier, didn't even had to make an igloo there were 20 foot snow to dig down and make a nice snow hole, also no fire there either at over 12'000 feet, also we had to bring our ammo up there as well plus heavy MG's, rockets and mines, even the food we had to carry, seems the path was to dangerous for mules...also did a few bivouac nights in Winter time, no fire either..lol
I absolutely love Rodeos. They’re an important part of American culture, and one of the best traditions that we have
Eva...you've seemed to grasp the meaning of "American culture" better than most young US citizens! Thank you for your vlog... continue the experience. Blessings....
As the time went on..and I watched this video hearing you say how these Americans had NO FEAR.. I began to feel proud in a way. Yes Americans are tough especially Cowboys my family were ranchers and horse riders.. in my generation we aren’t anymore. But this was a little insight into my ancestry.
you owe it to yourself to atleast learn how to ride a horse and pass that on to your kids so they can do the same. keep your family's culture alive or you lose it completely. all the best and have a great 4th of july weekend
I have a small story of country toughness. I'm a doctor. Grew up on a farm, bucked hay, mucked out stalls, built fence, and tended animals all my young life, so I know farmer mentality. One day at work, I saw this teenage girl, who lived on a family farm. She came home from school, and set about doing her chores. One of her horses stepped on her foot, and broke two of her metatarsals. Must have hurt like a son of a gun. Did she call 911, and come in by ambulance? I mean, I've had people call an ambulance for far less. But no, she finished her chores, then drove herself in, using one of the family pickups. It had a standard transmission, no less. I looked at her swollen, purple foot, then at her calm face, and asked her how bad it hurt. "Oh, pretty bad." she remarked matter-of-factly, smiling sweetly. She let me splint it, declined pain medicine ("I took some Advil before I left the house", she remarked), and drove herself home. I imagined her recounting the injury to her parents when they got home from work. They expressed sympathy, and asked how she was, but didn't over-react. At least, that's how I picture it. This girl wasn't born this tough. She learned it. She was cheer-leader pretty, and tough as nails.
@@stevenblackthorne4790 thank you for sharing this heartfelt wonderful story 💛
@@oldblood_eyes I’m 62...I’ve been on a horse about 5 times and was completely terrified the whole time😂
@@bohoxplorer840 haha well man, atleast you tried!
It's interesting watching you go through a rodeo knowing that you're polish and the horse culture that Poland came out of. I hope you find it interesting that some of the most famous cowboys actually have Polish ancestry.
I grew up ranching and on the rodeo circuit. Most of the events are pieces of a ranch work skill. So having the skill to say rope and tie a calf or rope and isolate steer are things you must do in the pasture to usually doctor or inoculate the animal. So being skilled at doing it fast and well is easier on the animal. We love our animals! (all ranch animals from the chickens, cows to the horses and the dogs get fed BEFORE people! Its a rule we all practice from childhood!) The bucking horses is a skill for training horses and the bull riding is for fun. All the bucking animals are usually bred to rodeo and come from a long line of good bucking gene lines. It is their only job and they enjoy it and the good ones become famous and household names in ranching households. The good buckers also get more breeding time ;-P to make more good bucking stock! Its a life style and everyone loves and helps each other unlike many other sports. You would be shocked how people competing against each other will share $, vehicles, trailers and often even share horses to help each other! (by the way I have lived and worked on 5 continents and own a passport) God Bless and hope you come back!
Riding a horse for multiple days across Mongolia, you're Cowgirl enough, wear the hat anytime you want to.
Right!!
That's right!! She can definitely "wear the hat!!". 👃✌️🥰🇨🇦
Eva to the cowboys: I'd like to be a cowgirl... is that possible?
Cowboys to Eva: We could make that happen tonight!
As a Texan I fully agree. Rural people find that admirable.
@Jim Allen - Yeah, I could see several of those cowboys eying her like they were about to saddle her up and go for a ride.
It's perfectly normal to have a crush on a cowboy! It's interesting to see your impression of some of our all time favorite pastimes. How did you like being call "mam" so much? We are generally a God fearing, manner minding state!
Except for the SW corner.
Most of the "Cowboy" states and Canadian provinces are the sane. Honest, friendly and just good people.
I was just thinking that at least one of them was cute and then she askes that question. I think it is more the gentle smile, the confidence and the good manners. God fearing isn't a thing said in most EU countries. Because fear is something negative, reserved for evil things here.
@@MissMoontree Organized religion has gotten to be a pretty ugly thing in America. Often used as an excuse for doing evil things. These are hard times in this country.
@@aliveandfiddling only hard if you allow them to be .... just sayin'
Root beer, boom, you made the right choice. Hopefully you'll get the chance to try a good root beer at some point instead of one of the fake ones. It's probably sweetened with corn syrup or aspartame or something. If you ever come across Bundaberg, grab it, it's heavenly. Also Sioux City Sarsaparilla is really good.
ZIA root beer from New Mexico is the best. Yucca Root, Licorice and Vanilla.
If I can, most Sundays I make fat full ice cream and have a root beer float. Makes my soul so happy.
The root beer is either Souix city or theres a honey based one made at an orchard 90mi from my place.
Gabriel i think we follow the same channels
IBC is the best root beer. It's known to shown up in places that don't have legal retail outlets, as did Coors beer and (the former) Dublin Dr Pepper.
Not weird to crush on a cowboy. Its a thing 🤣 love to see you shedding positive light on rural American culture and more importantly experiencing it for yourself. Much of our culture cannot really be understood until you experience it and it feels like we are constantly having to fight to defend and preserve it from people who have absolutely zero experience of it. One example in particular is firearms. When i was younger from time to time friends would bring their new collage friends back to our hometown to visit. These were people who had never experienced life away from the city and usually had negative preconceived notions of firearms amoung many other things. They often also expressed fear of them but after a few days of some proper education on handeling them, shooting them, and why we have them, most of the people had a very different and positive opinion on them. Some even wanting to get their own afterwards
So cool watching your expressions during the rodeo. I was raised on a ranch, started riding bulls and learned how to drive at age 8. Use to compete in rodeos until I was 14. You should get a few thousand emails from young cowboys offering to teach you to cowgirl. American cowgirls and cowboys are a special breed. That was your first rodeo...! lol. In case you aren't aware, "this ain't my first rodeo" is an expression Americans use meaning it isn't the first time they've done something. So from now on for you, this ain't your first rodeo, hon. You're absolutely beautiful too.
Did you grow up Northwest of Amarillo?
As someone who grew up riding horses and competing (in show jumping lol) I loved what that first young woman said about putting in the work and showing off her horse
Took my cousin Rosemarie to her first rodeo (the famed gladewater rodeo in East Texas) during her holiday trip from Edinburgh a few years back. She was just as blown away. She REALLY enjoyed the mechanical bull. And she also got a crush on a cowboy (must be something to those tight jeans and hats). Glad you enjoyed your time. It's nice to see American western culture through the eyes of outsiders. It kind of gives a true glimpse and is an eye opener to Americans as to how they are viewed by others. Safe travels and enjoy young lady.
After a while with these good folk, the only thing you will find confusing is should you have Ribeye or Prime rib by the campfire next to the river.