Rounding Up Inspiration

by Shanna Hatfield

Perhaps I shouldn't love it as much as I do, but there are few things I enjoy as much as attending a good rodeo.
A few weeks ago, Captain Cavedweller and I spent a few days in Pendleton, Oregon, attending the world famous Pendleton Round-Up. The first Pendleton Round-Up was held in the early 1900s and has a long, rich history.

One of the great things about going to the Round-Up is the Westward Ho Parade. There isn't a single motorized vehicle in the parade, but there are oodles of horses and vintage conveyances.
I snap bunches of photos so I can pull them up and study the details when I'm working on a story.

It's not every day you have the opportunity to see horses and mules in harnesses (especially spit and polished for a parade).

And you definitely don't see this everyday. These two characters were one of the most talked about entries in the parade. Later, they hung out in the park and let people take photos on the backs of the these tame giants.

Of course, one of the other things I love about the experience, is the rodeo. Since I write a lot about cowboys in general and rodeos in particular, it provides an opportunity for me to capture hundreds of images I can later use for research purposes.

(And for fun!)

Even if this is at a modern-day rodeo, I could easily use this photo to describe a scene of someone riding a bronc in any time frame.

This was my favorite photo of all those I took. This cowboy almost looks like he's performing some intricately choreographed dance move.

And you gotta have a photo of bull riding, even if this ol' boy was a little snotty.

~*~*~

A hopeless romantic with a bit of sarcasm thrown in for good measure, Shanna Hatfield is a bestselling author of sweet romantic fiction written with a healthy dose of humor. In addition to blogging and eating too much chocolate, she is completely smitten with her husband, lovingly known as Captain Cavedweller.

Shanna creates character-driven romances with realistic heroes and heroines. Her historical westerns have been described as “reminiscent of the era captured by Bonanza and The Virginian” while her contemporary works have been called “laugh-out-loud funny, and a little heart-pumping sexy without being explicit in any way.”

She is a member of Western Writers of America, Women Writing the West, and Romance Writers of America.

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