Mutton Bustin' Boy

Yesterday I became a proud rodeo mom!

Ethan participated in the Wool Riders Mutton Bustin' Competition yesterday at the Puyallup Fair. Last week I heard that it was open to kids ages 3-6, so I showed Ethan a few mutton bustin' videos on Youtube and asked if he wanted to do it. He was all for it.
Since I have a bit of a rodeo background myself (mutton bustin' at the Duchesne County Fair rodeo 1986) I felt it my responsibility to prepare my son. So we practiced...I was the sheep.
When it was time to sign him up I started to get nervous...the 6 year old kids looked a whole lot bigger than my little 3 year old. When we went over to show him the sheep his only remark was, "I want to ride a clean one." Oh dear, this wasn't going to go over very well.
When they put the little helmet and vest on him my heart really started pounding because I remembered my own experience bustin' a mutton; and it is one of my most vivid childhood memories because of how terrifying it was!

He was the last rider, number 21, he watched with huge eyes the 20 brave souls that went before him. After watching for a bit it was clear this wasn't a game for a 3 year old, the other little guys that age either refused to do it when they got up there or fell right off as soon as the sheep moved. But not my little rodeo prodigy, apparently our practice paid off as you can see here in the video (and yes the video is shaky because the rodeo mom was shaky, and I got so excited I missed filming half his ride).

The goal was to make it 6 seconds, we think he went about 5.5, definitely the best 3 year old rider!

The audience loved that when he finished the guy had to pull off his face guard because his mouth was so full of dirt. His biggest concern when it was finished was that he got dirty! I was so proud of my little mutton buster!

And here is Ethan's eye witness report...for posterity's sake...so proud to pass the baton to my first born.