For weeks we've been watching the Heartland series on Netflix.  It's based on the book series by Lauren Brooke and is filmed in the Alberta Rockies in Canada.  Amy and Lou keep their mother's dream alive by working with and healing neglected and abused horses.  Along with enjoying the relationship Amy has with the horses, we appreciate the beauty and peace of the Alberta Rockies.  Some of the episodes are a little corny, but it has old-fashion values. The grandfather imparts his experience, wisdom, and patience without flip, crude backtalk from others.  There's also some rodeo and trick riding scenes.  So to continue our interest in rodeos and trick riding, without actually participating, we headed to the Cutworm Corral in Hayesville last night.  We couldn't even walk up the rickety bleachers without holding onto people,  never mind lasting for eight seconds when the horse charged out of the shoot.

                                                    team roping
Between shows we were amazed with the following act.  The cowboy only used his legs to communicate what he wanted his horse to do.  There was a flow like he was dancing with his horse.

 The cowboy never used the reins throughout the act.

Two Texas Longhorns were let out and a huge horse trailer was driven into arena. The horse rounded them up guided by pressure from the cowboy's legs, and

led the longhorn up to the top of the trailer with the horse and cowboy following.

The longhorn turned around and marched back down and off.

After the cowgirls did their roping act all the children were invited to jump into the arena.  Suddenly like a swarm of gnats, children of all ages came from everywhere

climbing up and over two sets of fences to get to the arena.  One poor little calf with a flag lightly tied to his tail was sent out to face the excited cowgirls and cowboys.  The first one who grabbed the flag was the winner.

The night cooled down quickly and we started getting achy glutes from the rickety bleachers so we left before the barrel racing at 10:30.