Author Topic: Record falls as top steer takes center stage at Houston Rodeo  (Read 961 times)

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Online Elderberry

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Houston Chronicle by  Maggie Gordon March 16, 2019

The bidding starts at $50,000 — nearly as much as the average household earns in a year in rural Scurry County, where 18-year-old Lillyan Digby lives with her family. Which is why, as she stands on stage at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on Saturday morning with her steer Hank, Lillyan can’t help but think, “This isn’t real.”

Hank’s nervous. Cows aren’t built to traipse around a stage in front of hundreds of people waving yardstick bidding paddles. Not even prize-winning steers like Hank, who on Friday night was named the show’s grand champion among all 34 of the rodeo’s breed champions. And while Lillyan is determined to keep her composure behind pursed lips, by the time the bidding hits $300,000 — just a minute or so into the fast paced one-upping — Hank lets out a long, deep moo.

This elicits a few laughs from the crowd of a couple hundred of Houston’s most well-to-do, dressed in ensembles that make you realize cowboy boots really do pair well with Louis Vuitton. But the vast majority of the people seated in the sales pavilion are too pumped up to notice. In the front row, Alan Kent is battling his way to the top bid. He’s a mainstay at this auction — the businessman in a black cowboy hat who’s bought too many champions over the past four decades to even remember the total number. But a few rows to his right, Paul Somerville is determined to take the top bid.

They play chicken — along with a few others. There’s McCarthy Building Company, and Emily and Robert Clay up front. And further back in the stands, there’s the Champagne Cowgirls, a group of more than a dozen of Houston’s most high-profile female philanthropists, dressed in matching denim jackets. They’re fueled up on coffee (and maybe a few cocktails, one of their members, Hallie Vanderhider, says with a wink) and ready to raise the auction’s energy to the next level.

Somerville takes the lead at $400,000, then loses it before securing it again at a half-million dollars. But then there’s Kent with a $525,000 bid.

Hank stomps a foot. Snorts.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Record-falls-as-top-steer-takes-center-stage-at-13694253.php


Offline austingirl

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Re: Record falls as top steer takes center stage at Houston Rodeo
« Reply #1 on: March 17, 2019, 02:10:43 pm »
Don't let AOC near him.
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Offline Hoodat

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Re: Record falls as top steer takes center stage at Houston Rodeo
« Reply #2 on: March 17, 2019, 02:36:40 pm »
That's a lotta bull.
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Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Record falls as top steer takes center stage at Houston Rodeo
« Reply #3 on: March 17, 2019, 02:50:21 pm »
That's a lotta bull.
That's just it. It's a steer, not a bull. You can own it or clone it, but you ain't gonna breed it.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

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Offline GrouchoTex

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Re: Record falls as top steer takes center stage at Houston Rodeo
« Reply #4 on: March 17, 2019, 02:56:04 pm »
I figured it would be Mattress Mack

Offline Hoodat

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Re: Record falls as top steer takes center stage at Houston Rodeo
« Reply #5 on: March 17, 2019, 03:10:39 pm »
That's just it. It's a steer, not a bull. You can own it or clone it, but you ain't gonna breed it.

What about the heifer?

If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

-Dwight Eisenhower-


"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."

-Ayn Rand-

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Record falls as top steer takes center stage at Houston Rodeo
« Reply #6 on: March 17, 2019, 03:36:21 pm »
What about the heifer?


I guess the sale is to benefit a scholarship fund, but she's smiling because she figured her cut will pay for the four years of college for her. Happy kid.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline thackney

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Re: Record falls as top steer takes center stage at Houston Rodeo
« Reply #7 on: March 17, 2019, 03:45:27 pm »
I guess the sale is to benefit a scholarship fund, but she's smiling because she figured her cut will pay for the four years of college for her. Happy kid.

Not sure it will pay all the bills for 4 years.  The kid's share is capped at $85,000.  The rest goes to the scholarship general fund.  Lots of kids are going to share in the generosity of the bidders.

My daughter showed a heifer.  This is her last year so she is applying for Scholarship this year.
« Last Edit: March 17, 2019, 03:46:30 pm by thackney »
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Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Record falls as top steer takes center stage at Houston Rodeo
« Reply #8 on: March 17, 2019, 04:00:09 pm »
Not sure it will pay all the bills for 4 years.  The kid's share is capped at $85,000.  The rest goes to the scholarship general fund.  Lots of kids are going to share in the generosity of the bidders.

My daughter showed a heifer.  This is her last year so she is applying for Scholarship this year.
It might not pay them all, but it sure should help. (Geez, It cost about 20K for mine, tuition and fees, room and board (not including beer money)). But that was back when a dollar was worth 33 cents.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Online Elderberry

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Re: Record falls as top steer takes center stage at Houston Rodeo
« Reply #9 on: March 17, 2019, 04:30:02 pm »
My 2 youngest were commuter students, so I paid around 4k a semester for each.(Semesters without Hazlewood). My oldest skipped college. Went Navy, then Oil patch. Plans on college next.

Offline Sanguine

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Re: Record falls as top steer takes center stage at Houston Rodeo
« Reply #10 on: March 18, 2019, 02:22:58 am »
We have acquaintances who are heavily involved in the upper levels of the Rodeo.  It's a big deal.  Massive even. 

Offline Smokin Joe

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Re: Record falls as top steer takes center stage at Houston Rodeo
« Reply #11 on: March 18, 2019, 02:27:37 am »
My 2 youngest were commuter students, so I paid around 4k a semester for each.(Semesters without Hazlewood). My oldest skipped college. Went Navy, then Oil patch. Plans on college next.
Make (and save) money while the patch is going, go to school during the slumps....The hard part is not pi$$ing away the paycheck. Sounds like your boy has his head on straight, and will do just fine.
How God must weep at humans' folly! Stand fast! God knows what he is doing!
Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

C S Lewis

Offline IsailedawayfromFR

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Re: Record falls as top steer takes center stage at Houston Rodeo
« Reply #12 on: March 18, 2019, 01:02:08 pm »
It might not pay them all, but it sure should help. (Geez, It cost about 20K for mine, tuition and fees, room and board (not including beer money)). But that was back when a dollar was worth 33 cents.
That was expensive.

My 4 years at UT Austin was probably no more than $3,500.  I lived at home first 2 years then shared an apt.

first semester was only $4 a semester hour and total semester was only $100.

I worked a grocery store job plus two others to pay for it.
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