Rural kids' pasttime becomes rodeo sport

Here's an excerpt from the light-hearted story in today's New York Times:

Playing make-believe rodeo with sheep has long been a pastime of rambunctious rural children. But the sport has begun to move from horseplay, and the occasional rodeo halftime show, to wider, sometimes suburban, audiences and competitors, toward becoming a codified sport with its own gear and championships.

* * *

The sport’s popularity seems based in ... a rejection of the trend of bubble-wrapping childhood — and a move toward embracing traditional, rough-and-tumble Western culture, according to interviews with participants.

I guess it is a slow news day--or the NYT is looking for some light relief from the depressing news of partisan politics in Washington.