Wild and Woolly: Youngsters test rodeo chops in Mutton Bustin' event

Isaiah Lovato, 4, of Albuquerque’s West Side, clinches his hands into tight fists to show how he intends to grip the sheep’s wool.

Isaiah is one of 10 youngsters preparing to take part in the New Mexico State Fair Mutton Bustin’ event during the fair rodeo in Tingley Coliseum on Wednesday night.

Mutton busting is an event in which little kids, boys and girls, ride sheep for as long as they can. The only rule is hang on by any means possible, so mutton-busting technique is better demonstrated than discussed.

Hamp Porter III, 8, a student at Rio Rancho’s Joe Harris Elementary School, clasps his hands tightly on his forearms, displaying the approach he intends to use if he can get his arms around the sheep’s neck.

Addelynn Galvan, 5, who lives in Rio Rancho with her parents, Dylan and Ashley, prefers to spell out her intentions.

“I’m going to ride it backwards,” Addelynn said.

She meant she intended to mount the sheep with her head facing its tail and her heels pointed toward its head.

“It gives me more balance,” she said.

Give it a go

Suffolk sheep ewes, looking somewhat out of place, were penned near rough stock bulls and broncs just outside the rodeo arena on Wednesday. The woolies were the mutton-busting mounts.

“They are all rank,” Brandi Phillips said of the sheep, trying to sound convincing. Phillips was coordinating the mutton-busting contest. “Some jump, some hop.”

The sheep weigh between 100 and 125 pounds. Riders must weigh 60 pounds or less.

During the opening events of the rodeo, mutton-busting contestants sat in the coliseum stands with their parents, waiting for the call to suit up in helmets and vests for their wild-sheep rides.

Everleigh Dennison, 4, of Bosque Farms was with her dad, Joshua, and mom, Nicole. Everleigh saw her first mutton busting competition recently and thought she’d like to give it a go. She’s used to being around animals. Her parents raise horses and Highland cattle.

“She’s been practicing on our Great Pyrenees, Ryan,” Nicole said. “He’s kind of wobbly. He just wanted to play with her.”

Joshua said the family often attends rodeos, but Everleigh is the first of them to participate in one.

“She’s a real tough girl,” he said. “Two or three weeks ago, she got attacked by one of our roosters, a big one. It all toughens her up.”

Although Isaiah Lovato’s folks lives on the West Side, they raise Red Angus cattle and a breed of hairless sheep on a ranch in Tijeras.

Isaiah has rodeoing in his blood. His father, Angelo, has ridden bulls in regional rodeo competition.

Lizzy, Isaiah’s mom, said her son has been honing his mutton-busting technique by riding the family’s hairless sheep, but she’s confident he will do better with hands full of Suffolk wool.

‘Sounded cool’

Hamp Porter III and his little brother, Nathaniel, 7, had never seen a live mutton-busting contest before Wednesday.

“It just sounded cool,” Hamp said. “I’ve seen it on YouTube.”

Nathaniel said he had been practicing by riding on his great-grandfather’s back, but he admits sheep might be tougher and certainly faster.

Marissa Hayes, the boys’ mother, was not worried about the two tangling with sheep.

“They get in a lot more trouble than this,” she said. “I catch them on the roof all the time.”

Hamp Porter II, the brothers’ father, said he was in a mutton-busting competition when he was 5, but doesn’t remember it at all.

“They told me the sheep fell over before I did,” he said.

‘Tore it up’

And then it was time. The kids and parents were summoned to a corridor beneath the arena seating where the young contestants suited up and got their entry numbers. The youngsters lined up, waiting quietly, perhaps somewhat apprehensively. The sheep were chill.

“We are going to show you how it all starts in rodeo,” the arena announced tells the Tingley audience. “We got a bunch of mutton fighters.”

The mutton-busting event gets done in a hurry. Most of the kids hit the ground when the sheep was barely out of the chute.

But Hamp Porter III, using the forearm embrace he had demonstrated earlier, stayed with his sheep for 20 or 30 yards, making him the clear winner of the night’s contest. He said it felt good to win.

His father elaborated.

“He tore it up,” Hamp II said. “I told him don’t let go, to wrap his heels around the sheep’s stomach. He said, ‘Dad, I got this.’”

Hamp III’s little brother, Nathaniel, exhibited a grip he thought might work better for him next time — because, he said, there would be a next time.

Little Everleigh Dennison came off her sheep pretty quick.

“She looked a little startled, maybe embarrassed,” Joshua Dennison said. “She shed a few tears, but she’s only 4, so you expect that. We took her to get some cotton candy and she was pretty happy about that.”

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