Wait! I have a Whistle!!

Central Point, Oregon. Wild Rogue Rodeo, 2014. The 3rd and final grand entry is underway. Everything has gone smoothly. The horn has worked for the rough stock events so, it is going to work tonight, right? Our sound guy is great. He's got it. They are getting ready to buck the first horse out and, with a smile a timer looks over to me and says, "I hope our horn is working!" About 2 seconds later, the gate opens and the final perf has really started. The 8 second mark is coming, coming, and.... no horn. Lucky for us, our timers had a whistle ready and as soon as that horn didn't sound, they were ready. A lot of things happened at that moment. A) this bareback rider decided it was time to part ways from this bronc and he went flying. B) our sound guy realized the horn wasn't hooked up. And C) our timer with the whistle was able to blow that whistle and notify everybody not watching the clock, the ride was over.

The lesson here, is that you need to check (and recheck when necessary) everything. Yes, everything. Even if it is the last night of the rodeo and things have gone smoothly. This is rodeo and, yep, things happen. Make sure your horn is hooked up and working before the start of the rodeo. Even if you think it is, always have that whistle, or air horn, ready in case a back up is needed. A pat on the back to the 2014 Central Point, Wild Rogue Rodeo timers because even though they didn't do a final check of the horn, they were ready with their back up whistle.

Later that night... That building got so loud for the bull riding, the horn was getting hard to hear. For one particular good ride, you couldn't even tell if the horn was working. It was because we found out a few hours ago it wasn't and fixed it. Our timer with the whistle started blowing the whistle with the horn. That came in handy when this one bull rider got everybody watching pretty excited. It wasn't the 100 point bull ride Central Point is famous for but, it got people yelling and cheering. The combined efforts of the horn And the whistle made it possible for people to know the ride was over and then you really couldn't hear anything except the voice of our announcer, Will Rassmussen. *Note to the timers reading this: Be aware of changing surroundings and volume levels. Small, enclosed buildings can get very loud so, be ready with that back up whistle or air horn as I know you always are.