Tlajomulco de Zuniga is just outside Guadalajara to the south in a valley north of Lake Chapala.

Maria got a bunch of free tickets as a local restaurant promotion and asked if I wanted to go.  I've only been to country rodeos and I was picturing precision drills by women riders - this was neither.

They call the Charreada the national sport - but I don't know.  These were four teams who compete on a regular basis with 5 events.  Horse control, horse riding, horse roping, small bull riding and tail pulling.

Horse control is racing the length of the area and making a sudden stop - followed by left and right rotations.  Horse riding involves jumping from your horse to another.  Roping requires the team to entice a horse to circle the outside of the ring twice while someone waits to lasso on the second pass.  Small bull riding is just that.  Tail pulling requires you pass the bull on your horse with tail in hand causing him to turn and take a tumble.   The sooner and more dramatic the bulls fall - the higher the score it seemed.

All in all a good afternoon.   The covered arena gave me some lighting problems with the camera - but getting rained out would have been worse.