Friday shoot-out: Sports

The idea of the Friday My Town Shoot-Out is to post photos of your local community every Friday. This week's assignment was chosen by Barry and Linda from the west hills of Toronto, Canada.

Reser Stadium football game

Corvallis is a college town, so there are many typical sports played here with great passion; the colors are orange and black and the mascot is a beaver. On any given day you might find football, soccer, basketball, baseball, ultimate frisbee, tennis, gymnastics, track and field, golf, lacrosse and rugby being played by both men and women.

I tried to think of what we have that might be a little different from other places, something I like to take pictures of: equestrian sports!

We share miles and miles of hiking trails with horses.

Trail riders of all ages are here.



The Inavale Horse Trials is coming up in June: a big local event, and a very fun spectator sport.

Cowboy limbering up

And there are rodeos: I love the rodeos, I do. Here are a few of John's shots of a local rodeo.

Rodeo participants are family-oriented and raise their little ones to be cowboys.

I mean, who wouldn't want to be THIS cowboy?

Or maybe this one?

Or this cowgirl?

Oh ouch, maybe not.

When I was 8 years old I thought one day maybe I would be a rodeo queen.

Or if not a queen, maybe a member of an equestrian drill team, like this one galloping full speed.

At the end of the local rodeo they let the broncs loose in a controlled stampede. They are incredibly beautiful! The cowgirl observing them in this photo is our daughter.

I drew this quickie from a newspaper photo because I couldn't figure out when or where the team was practicing this week and so I have no photos of my own

Last but not least, we have our very own polo team at OSU. For about $400 a student can join, learn the game, and participate in competitions; you don't even have to have your own horse. (The club owns eight well-trained polo ponies, the highest scoring ponies in the Northwest. ) Heck, you don't even have to know how to ride; the rider in my sketch here is a city boy majoring in business who just started riding last year!