Last week I attended the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, a subject I blogged about one year ago here.

Nothing has changed in the sentiments I expressed last year, but I do have a few new pictures.

You can probably tell that we were in the nosebleed seats. If you want to see great shots of the competition, you’ll probably want to look at the official NFR site.

I did get some shots at this year’s Cowboy Christmas Gift Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Items that I wish I had a use for:

Items that introduced me to a different world:

Cowboy art:

A mechanical bull ride:

And a kid and pony rodeo with team contestants from both Canada and the U.S.:

I had a chance to get up close with this big guy. You can’t see it from the picture but he had the most beautiful white feathering on his legs.

And the Christmas spirit was everywhere.

Rodeo is a sport for (mostly) young men, but this year, the oldest competitors were Jake Barnes and Clay O’Brien Cooper aged 55 and 53 respectively. Neither cowboy was flopping around on the top of a bronco or a bull, or jumping off their horses to wrestle steers–both competed in team roping.

Pretty cool. God willing, next December I’ll be posting pictures from the 2015 NFR.

 

All images are the author’s