Today was the big ride-in for the trail riders. Thousands of them converged on Houston from all directions,
some riding from down Mexico way and from Louisiana too.
This is the opening day for Rodeo season, 3 weeks of concerts, parties and celebration of our Western Heritage.

Texans invented the trail ride as a rite of self-renewal, a massive ceremonial trot along vaguely ancestral paths in memory
of cowboys, pioneers, and the good old days when there was really someplace to go on a horse.
Modeled on the cattle drives of the nineteenth century, the trail ride brings back the time of yippee kie yay,
but without all of that lonesome cowpoke business, since a trail ride is essentially a big, long party.