Sort Pink 2011

Cows. Horses. Hard-core pick-ups for as far as the eye can see. Guys in cowboy hats and sexy, tight jeans. Oh yeah, it was a good weekend.

Steph & I spent the weekend down the Bitterroot at a rodeo fundraiser benefiting breast cancer. It's called Sort Pink; sort refers to the main event - sorting cattle one-by-one in numerical order on horseback. I'm sure it goes without saying that I was merely a spectator donning pink attire. It took us awhile, but we finally caught on to the rules. A nice, young cowboy obliged our many questions. "So this is your first sort?" he asked after the first round of 21 questions.

Festivities kicked off Friday night with a concert by Wylie and The Wild West. Fantastic, TRUE, classic country music, complete with a fiddle. The kind of music I grew up listening to on 101.3, before it changed to The Fox. Wylie is aptly named; he was quite a character on stage, dancing and jumping around. They write & play their own music, and the crowd really got into it. It took me a little bit to warm up....quite literally.

I spent a great deal of time planning my outfits for the weekend. For the concert, I'd picked out a silk, pink paisley print dress with a jean jacket and white silk scarf. I found some awesome cowboy-boot-look-alike clogs at a thrift store to complete the look. Steph's Uncle Steve's first full sentence to me was "Are you going to be warm enough? I've got some coveralls in there if you need 'em." Uncomprehending, I said "I think I'll be fine, it's inside right???" Steve then informed me that yes, it is inside, but the barn is only about 45 degrees. Barn???

The huge aluminum-sided building in front of us, was in fact a barn. A real barn. With a dirt floor. This wasn't a Michigan-style pole barn with a cement floor and pellet stove. Walking to our seats was quite a challenge for me in the soft dirt with clogs. I also became supremely self-conscious seeing as how everyone else was wearing wranglers, large belt buckles, well worn real cowboy boots and hats. The tune "Like a rhinestone cowboy" was playing through my head. I received some strange looks. In their defense, I was a bit dolled up...slinky silk dress, curled hair, an ankle bracelet and fancy clog shoes. I don't think I would've been more out of place if I was wearing a sign proclaiming "I'm a Liberal!"

Thankfully, I did get over myself enough to dance. (With the help of a little Mike's hard lemonade at intermission.) This was good dancin' music! And by god, I wasn't about to let that opportunity pass by! I also thoroughly enjoyed watching the couples dance. Cowboys know how to dance!

Saturday Steph & I got up, made breakfast and headed back to the Diamond A Arena for the sorting rodeo. We were detoured twice by a yard sale and a Bluegrass Music Festival. But we pressed on, and got to the barn in time to see both Deb & Steve ride into the pen to sort. I learned a lot of the terminology this weekend, but I'm still a little vague on which is the sorter and which is the cutter. Maybe I'll Google it later.

I took tons of photos...many of which likely label me a creeper. Other than Deb & Steve, I didn't know a soul there. Yet, I took over 50 photos of different people. I stood behind a couple of older cowboys during the concert and took about 5 pictures of them trying to get just the right light. Honest, I wasn't objectifying them...but they did look real good in those Wrangler's. Cowboys know how to wear jeans!

This weekend rekindled my childhood dream of owning a horse. And sparked a new dream of having my own cowboy :)