Professional riders turn out for Los Fresnos event

With dark clouds creeping along the Los Fresnos horizon, cowboys and cowgirls dressed for the rodeo, telling tales of an almost nomadic lifestyle traveling the country to make a living riding a bull or a bucking horse.

The performers donned jeans and hats and exercised the horses in a dusty field before the Los Fresnos PRCA Rodeo Saturday afternoon, keeping a close eye on the storm closing in on Cameron County.

“My dad rode bucking horses,” said Ryan Little, 27, a cowboy from Louisiana participating in the rodeo.

Inspired by his father, Little began learning the technique of riding a bareback horse when he was 13 years old – a process of trial and error until it just “clicked,” he said.

To stay on the horse, he mastered the balancing act using hands, legs and hips.

Little takes carpentry jobs on the side when he is low on cash, but he supports himself by traveling “border to border and coast to coast” to ride in professional rodeos.

The 23rd annual Los Fresnos PRCA rodeo began Friday and concludes today, roping in an estimated 12,000 people, rodeo chairman Mark Milum said.

Families gathered early at the fairgrounds Saturday, enjoying the Cameron County Fair and Life Stock Show and carnival rides, food and drink. New this year was a concert Saturday night featuring Tejano band Little Joe y la Familia and country artist Tracy Lawrence, Milum said.

Less than an hour before the rodeo, cowboy Chad Rutherford, 20, strode over toward the enclosure with the horses to prepare for the show. A native of Itasca, Texas, he began bareback riding as a way to put himself through college.

He attends classes but is on the road almost every week to perform.

The hardest part, he said, is frequently leaving home and living on the road.

“I’m always gone,” he said.

But the traveling is worth it, Rutherford said.

“I experience all of it, the pride, the adrenaline,” he said.

While the performers readied for the show, spectators meandered on the grounds, grabbing a beer or a funnel cake.

Mary Hartman, 73, of Laguna Vista, waited with a group of friends. She and her husband have rarely missed the rodeo since they started coming to the area in 1996. Previously a Winter Texas, Hartman moved to the area permanently in 2000.

“This is pure Americana,” she said of the rodeo. “There’s nothing like it.”

The storm clouds grew darker as afternoon progressed, until torrents of rain and lightning broke over Los Fresnos just before the rodeo.

The stormy weather delayed the event, which then proceeded normally.