Mutton Bustin' draws crowds at livestock show

MERCEDES - From under the brim of his straw cowboy hat, Rolston Lee Reyna stared at the big bucking sheep.

Then he said they didn't scare him.

For the 6-year-old from Edinburg, the Mutton Bustin' contest might be the start of a rodeo career, his father Rey Reyna said.

At the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show, his son was going to ride his first sheep, the father said Thursday night.

"He doesn't know what the sheep's going to do, but he ain't scared," the truck driver said. "He's never been on a sheep, but he's been on horses. I hope he's going to pick up on it and be a bull rider."

On the rodeo circuit, busting sheep is a tradition, said Rowland Williams, chairman of the show's professional rodeo.

"The main event is mutton busting," said Williams, who's chaired the rodeo for more than 10 years. "They ride sheep and they're not but 5 to 7 years old and they judge them on how long they can stay on. A lot of the pros right now still say they started out riding sheep."

Since its debut in 1955, the rodeo's grown into one of the show's premier events, Williams said.

"It's really growing and getting bigger and bigger every year," Williams said. "This year, we got the biggest rodeo contestant-wise than we ever had. One you won't believe is from France."

Born in Marseilles, France, Evan Jayne said he was 14 when he caught rodeo fever in Italy.

"I used to work overseas with my dad as a trick rider, doing tricks on horses, and one day we got to see a rodeo in Italy and I fell in love with it," Jayne said.

Now he rides bareback on the circuit that takes him across the country for about nine months in a row.

"It tries your heart," said Jayne, 25, who lives in Huntsville. "It's like eight seconds of hell. It's hard to explain how brutal the event is. I'm a very aggressive person and it's a very aggressive sport."

Like many of the cowboys, Jake Halderson rode into the showgrounds to score points on his way to the finals set for Waco in October.

Seven years ago, rodeo became his life, said Halderson, a bronco rider from Amarillo.

"I love it," said Halderson, 21. "It's being free, being my own boss. I get to travel around. I do what I love."

Since she was 5, Cynthia Dominguez said she's come to the showgrounds to watch the cowboys.

"It's a tradition in Mercedes, so people here have to come," said Dominguez, 25, a student at South Texas College. "The bull riding is very exciting. But honestly, the food is the best part."