Deseret Ranch Rodeo

When you think of Central Florida you probably think of Disney World, Universal Studios Florida, Sea World, and Kennedy Space Center, but it is also home to the biggest cattle ranch in the United States. OK, not geographically-speaking because there are ranches that have more acreage in other states, but still the Deseret Cattle & Citrus Ranch is 300,000 acres. It's the number of cows that makes it the biggest - it runs over 40,000 cows. If you add in the calves born during calving season that adds another 32,000 making for 72,000 cows!

This was a big weekend around here! Not only was it the Cocoa, Florida Stake Relief Society Conference weekend, but also the annual Deseret Ranch Rodeo.

Just to slip this in right away: The 52 week project for this week is "ROUND" so I chose this shot from the Rodeo.

The whole Rodeo is great fun to watch but one of my favorite things is the flag bearers - especially with the little foal following her mama as Janna Smith and Sherilyn Mortensen rode into the arena with the flags.

The "drill team" this year included a group of 20 kids, a lot of them really young - like the 4 year old son and 6 year old daughter of one of the cowboys, who rode in formation to kick off the evening. Mutton busting, bronc riding, calf roping and barrel racing are all popular events.

But the piece de resistance is the pig scramble. All kids 7 and under gather on one end of the arena and then the door on a horse trailer opens up and a whole bunch of little wild piggies jump out thinking that they are finally free - but to their horror they are met by a wave of several hundred children running toward them! It's HILARIOUS as the pigs race around trying to find a way out of the arena while being chased by the kids who are diving, grabbing, yelling, running and hopefully catching a pig so that they can be rewarded with a candy bar.

Just in front of these little pigs is a line of a couple of hundred little kids impatiently waiting for the signal to RUN!!!