Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear, or a fool from any direction.
Saturday was a special day in Katherine, NT. The rodeo show was in town!
Organised to raise funds for a breast cancer association, the show was featuring bronc ridding - saddle bronc and bareback - bull riding, the dangerous steer wrestling, barrel races (a women-only event) and team roping.
The Katherine showgrounds were quite busy as a lot of the spectators had made the trip from cattle stations some as far as three hours from the Northern Territory town.
Cowboy hats, leather boots, high-waist jeans and checkered shirts were the norm among the crowd, and many were wearing a pink-adorned outfit to show support for the cause.
Although the level of testosterone was pretty high that night (life can be quite lonely for those guys on those remote cattle stations), I must recognise that a lot of those country guys are truly behaving like gentlemen - surely the results of being brought-up by a badass mother (there were a lot of those women around at the show - tied up in jeans and cowboys boots, pink cheeks and tough frames from living outdoors although keeping a certain femininity, you really don't want to mess with them)
The event happening at night it was quite a challenge to come up with decent pictures, so here is a quick resume I have put together in video.
After spending a couple of hours eating dust and being galvanised by the adrenaline (and the testosterone) overflowing everywhere, it is quite difficult not to fall hopelessly in love with one of those cowboys and dream about long rides in the sunset, mustering the cattle, fencing together under the unforgiving sun...
high res on Flickr