Horsing Around

After marching in the Marade, you might be ready for some down-home entertainment. And there’s nothing more down-home than the annual Martin Luther King African-American Heritage Rodeo, an annual MLK Day tradition at the National Western Stock Show (an estimated quarter of the cowboys in the Old West were black), featuring the rough and rowdy stars of the all-black Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo. The event, which starts at 6 p.m. at the Denver Coliseum, 4655 Humboldt Street, includes the traditional display of rodeo arts: bucking broncos, Pony Express relay races, barrel racing, bull riding, mutton busting, calf roping, you name it — along with the more esoteric ladies’ steer undecorating, which is somewhat akin to steer wrestling, only with women. Try to fit your lasso around that.

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More About

• Bill Pickett
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Rodeo
• Track and Field

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Tickets range from $12 to $35; go to www.nationalwestern.com/nwss/specialevents/mlk_rodeo.php or call 1-888-551-5004 for reservations.
Mon., Jan. 18, 6 p.m., 2010