rodeoveteran - 2014-12-11 12:50 PM Should the ground be better? Yes. Is it as simple as bringing in the "best ground" winner in? Absofreakinglutely NOT! There is a tremendous difference in perfecting ground in a permanent pen and in a building not built and never meant to have a rodeo. I have run many a hockey arena and basketball court. I have also worked for an outfit who put on a major indoor winter rodeo at outfit paid a guy year round to obtain ground for his winter rodeos, so I have some idea as to what it takes. IMHO, if they brought in MORE sand in an attempt to improve the ground, that was a mistake. You have to put some type of clay base on the concrete floor in order for the ground not to push away TO the concrete any time a horse/bull is accelerating, turning or stopping. If you put sand on top of clay, then add water, the water tends to go right down to the clay and make a greasy base under the sand. If you don't add other dirt at all, the clays can dry out to be as hard as concrete in a heated building. Add in factors like the moisture content of the ground coming in (if it is not covered for months before being hauled in to the building you can be left with a mucky mess). Also, you have to deal with dirt available locally, which is NOT consistent throughout the country. Then you have the outside temperature. My guess is after the first couple of rounds they tried to address the problem with additional watering and improved the ground....for those days. Now someone said that a cold front came through. So they turn up the heat in the building and the ground dries out faster and more completely. If they add the same amount of water that they did on the days the ground was improved, it is now not enough. Should someone be astute enough to figure that out? Yes, but with thousands of other details to attend to, it can get lost in the shuffle. I don't think anyone deliberately sets out to make the ground bad, especially at the NFR. Not only do you have barrel racers breathing down you neck but all of those stock contractors. I read a lot of complaints on here about bad ground at rodeos. There is a reason for that. A large number of rodeos are held in facilities that are not meant to house this kind of event. Particularly in the middle of large cities, where the spectator pool is the largest, giving the potential for larger added money. Most those folks are not going to drive out to the boonies to attend a rodeo just because it is a permanent pen. No spectators, no sponsors, no added money. There are those individual contractors out there who could give a rip about the ground, but a GOOD one is concerned about it, if nothing else, than for the safety of his own livestock. And you can bet that it is a topic of conversation at NFR organizational meetings. I am not excusing the ground ('tho I have seen much, MUCH worse), but think that they are doing the best they can. You can have the greatest ground in the world but if you do not have all the same factors and the same people in charge, the variables and the ground WILL change. It's not as simple as some of you seem to think it is.

3turns - 2014-12-11 1:02 PM


Sometimes you take the health of your horse before the win!! Nancy is smart and is riding correct. Yes she could win more money, but she could also have a career end to Fuzz if she rode stupid. Nancy Hunter knows what she is doing, give her a little more credit!! She obviously knows how to ride or she wouldnt be there!!  

lookout hill - 2014-12-11 9:37 AM I just have to say that I am super impressed with Carlee's young'uns.  They are going to be superstars and earn her trip back next year. 

GLP - 2014-12-11 10:17 AM

Still the fact of the matter is, it should be a standard practice to have a knowledgeable ground crew there to take care of the ground every year. If it is, then this year's crew should not be used next year. I don't think there is any excuse for this bad ground at the NFR.

Frodo - 2014-12-11 7:58 AM The whole event mired in money and what?... they can't afford a tractor.







 

Lobo - 2014-12-11 1:33 PM Or they can't afford water? ????  Penny pinchers. 



Just hope they have a good PR and have them on speed dial.  They'll need them if a horse is hurt because of the trashy ground.

 

The west is in a drought and I guess this applies to Las Vegas. 



 

3 To Go - 2014-12-11 1:23 PM It is the same ground crew that has been used when they were setting arena records. Ground just doesn't always do what you want it to do, even when the best efforts are made. I just watched another horse fall in a hole at the first barrel at the BFA. Are they not trying? They've been running that show for 30 years, you think they could get that problem fixed by now too right? Clearly it's not that easy. Ultimately, rodeo is a show and no one wants to intentionally put on a bad show. The contractors don't want horses that don't buck, steers that can't be thrown or calves that can't be tied, or barrel horses falling down. Should the ground be better? Yes, is obviously the answer. Is this the first time these girls have experienced bad ground or ground that doesn't hold the same from #1 through #15? Absolutely frickin NOT! They run on crap like this ALL YEAR. They are professionals and should be able to adjust and help their horses accordingly. There are a lot of rodeos that when you enter and know if you are after #5 on the ground you might as well draw out because you aren't getting a check. Or if you don't get up in a perf you aren't getting a check. The ground changes and this is part of running in the PROS. They also don't get the luxury of dragging after every 5 runners. They run 15, the ground is going to get chewed up. They've just happened to have it pretty nice in recent years where you could win no matter where you were on the ground. This year is more like a regular rodeo where if you're at the bottom you don't get a check. But Nancy won 4th on the bottom of the ground last night, so go figure. If the 4Ds ran 15 girls without dragging, they'd have trouble too. As far as the girls "endangering" their horses by running on this ground, how do you think they got to the NFR? If they only ran at rodeos where the ground was good none of them would have qualified! There are a lot of rodeos that award big paychecks that have notoriously bad ground - Calgary, Cheyenne, etc. and they all still enter and run their GOOD horses knowing the ground is BAD.

3turns - 2014-12-11 1:02 PM


Sometimes you take the health of your horse before the win!! Nancy is smart and is riding correct. Yes she could win more money, but she could also have a career end to Fuzz if she rode stupid. Nancy Hunter knows what she is doing, give her a little more credit!! She obviously knows how to ride or she wouldnt be there!!  

FlyingJT - 2014-12-11 2:02 PM


Oh man I wish I could scream this at people!! We put on a series this fall, our first ever attempting(it was a learning experience forsure!), and by the end if i heard one more person say something about the ground I was going to flip! Its too deep, its not deep enough, its too dry, its too wet, its hard, too much clay, too much sand, . If people really new how hard we worked and worked to make it perfect! The weather and humidity would change the ground conditions from day to day, if we worked it too soon it would get hard, if we didn't get the water just right we either had a slick bottom or a shifty top. It was/is my nemesis!

Nevertooold - 2014-12-11 11:43 AM


They said their water truck broke down but I'm sure with all the construction going on...someone would have had a water truck they could use.

They are in a drought. When we flew over Lake Mead it was really down and they said on the news that they might have to put some lower pumps in to get the water out.
 

Crowned Image - 2014-12-11 4:48 PM


but but but...... I WANT IT PERFECT

Go BoyGo - 2014-12-11 7:55 PM I ran at the Toughest Cowboy. They brought semis full of their own ground The event was in a coliseum that is usually a hockey rink. The ground was awesome they set it up and tore it down in one day. I seriously cant figure out why the WNFR ground people cant figure it out.

mreklaw - 2014-12-11 10:16 PM You should have watched tonite! Ground was way better!

barrelracer1983 - 2014-12-11 4:49 PM The last time I was down there for a NASCAR race, it rained the first day! This was in March 2013.