Brooklyn Rice had her first adventure with a sheep tonight, clinging to the back of a galloping shank of mutton for some breathless moments before tumbling to the dust.
“It was rough, but it was fun,” the pigtailed 5-year-old said after her turn as a contestant in the National Western Stockshow’s mutton bustin’ event.
Rice was one of 50 kids to compete. Her cousin, Nick Obechina, 6, also rode.
The show is open to kids 5 to 7 years old under 55 pounds.
They wear helmets and leather vests and hang on while the do their best to dump them.
“This is a fun thing, you want the kids to experience whatever they can,” Renee Rice, 42, Brooklyn’s mother, said of her decision to allow the child to ride the ewe. “They could get hurt riding their bikes.”
Nick Obechina practice for the event consisted of riding his dad’s back, said his mother, Amber Obechina, 36.
Nick’s cousin, who is also Brooklyn’s older brother, Daniel McKune, 16, is a bull rider, Amber Obechina, of Highlands Ranch, said. “His cousin got him all pumped.”
It didn’t take much to get the kids interested, McKune said. “My sister would always hop on my back, I told her, you might be good at this.”
Amber Obechina, 36, expected to be free of concern during the ride, but surprised herself. “I was really nervous,” she said when it was over.
“I have never seen a kid get hurt,” said Jerry Marques, who has helped out at the show as a volunteer for seven years. “The kids really get into it. They get stepped on, most don’t cry.”
Mark Henderson, the contractor who provided the 20 sheep used in the show, said not all of the critters are cut out to carry a kid.
Those who don’t take to the sport stay home.
“They may take off and run too hard, hit a fence. Some are too independent.”
Most aren’t a problem, though.
“Sheep are pretty docile animals mainly they run and kind of jump a little bit. They’re pretty similar in personality.”
Not every place is open to mutton bustin’. New York City prohibited the event during the Professional Bull Riders event last week, citing health concerns.
“The city Health Department is wholly un-versed in the sport of ‘mutton-busting’ and without sufficient time to examine its potential hazards, we deferred to caution,” an agency statement said, according to the New York Daily News.
Sara Broun, a publicist for the Professional Bull Riders, said: “Every time we come to New York City we have this fight with the city about whether we can even host the event,” according to the newspaper.
“I think we western people are a little tougher than New York,” said Stock Show volunteer Bev Moe.
Tom McGhee: (303)954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
