Feature: Houston's rodeo a good fit for all ages

From toddlers in strollers to the elderly on walkers or wheelchairs, the approximately 2.5 million people who attend the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo -- the world's largest such attraction on the planet -- come in all shapes, sizes, nationalities and ages.

Just as one Western hat cannot crown all heads, rodeo committee coordinators have a diversified program attractive to a wide range of visitors, said Shirley Grilling, who came to the rodeo Monday from Winterhaven, Florida, to celebrate her 90th birthday.

"I am extremely impressed with the footwork done by the people who run the show and the student scholarship program where the money goes," said Grilling, who is among a select group of about 100 women who served as U.S. Air Force aviators during World War II.

"The only rodeo I've ever been to before was a little rodeo in Florida and that before my husband died. That was 60 years ago," she said. "It's been a while."

Like others who visited the show Tuesday, Grilling said she was most interested in the rodeo's agriculture-rooted history and in seeing the animals at the rodeo. She was specifically interested in watching the large horses, steers and bulls ridden during the evening show by cowboys and cowgirls from across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and other countries.

"I'm looking forward to seeing the performers in the ride itself, the agility of the riders," Grilling said. "They are like ballet artists on horseback."

Another senior, 76-year-old Texas rancher James Schilling, said he has been coming to the rodeo for 40 years. He volunteers to help in the rodeo's International Room, where international buyers and sellers of animals and animal products congregate to do business.

"I enjoy the cross-section of people, and showing the visitors from other countries that Texas ranchers are people just like they are," Schilling said.

Nancy Cronin, 60, from Spring, Texas, brought her seven-year-old granddaughter Layla Crossley to the rodeo to look over the horticulture and livestock projects by students of Future Farmers of America, a youth organization.

"We'll come back on another day for the rodeo and the concert. Today, we are looking at all the flower arrangements and the animals, the kids with their calves, steers, goats, rabbits, chickens, you name it," said Cronin, adding that it was her first time to come to the Houston rodeo.

Layla said she was most excited about the petting zoo in the NRG Park's AgVenture Pavilion.

"I liked petting the rabbits," she said. "Also, I like seeing the cowboys and cowgirls riding the bulls and horses. This is my fourth year to visit the rodeo so I like showing my grandma around."

From under his Western hat a jot too big for his small head, Wyatt Dodd, 10, is watching the sale of his three commercial steers he has raised since getting them in September from his Texas county's Junior Commercial Field Management Program.

"My dad was a saddle bronc rider at a ranch rodeo," Wyatt said. "I grew up in a rodeo family."

His mother, Stacy Dodd, confirmed that, adding that she has been coming to the rodeo since she was Wyatt's age to show steers in her youth.

"I always placed here, but I never won grand champion steer," she said. "This year, we have a friend in the rodeo who will be roping calves, so we're excited about watching that."

"And going to the carnival," Wyatt added.

Jonathan Rosenstein, a 55-year-old sculptor, said he has come to the rodeo every year since his family moved to Houston from New York, where his uncle ran a ranch, when he was a child.

"I love the livestock show and I like seeing where the things I buy that I like to eat come from," Rosenstein said. "I come for the experience and the food. There's a booth that has a Polish sausage and I ate that and it was really good."

A Houston native, 20-year-old Brenet Richards, agrees that the food alone is worth the visit. Richards, who works at Sudie's Catfish in one of the rodeo's several food courts, said she's enjoyed coming to the rodeo as a patron every year.

In addition to seeing the small and large animals available at the show, she mostly relishes the variety of award-winning barbecue and other food favorites the rodeo has to offer.

"The rodeo has the best food. I especially like the funnel cakes," Richards said. "If I had to pick something else, I would definitely say the best things about the rodeo are also the carnival -- especially the Ferris wheel -- and the concerts at night."

Richards told Xinhua that she wishes the Chinese would come to the rodeo and set up tents in the food court with authentic Chinese food.

"Chinese food is my favorite," she said. "The rodeo ought to have some Chinese food on the menu." Endi