Giddyup! Texas history goes to church as Rodeo season starts

SPRING BRANCH — With a loud and raucous “HOWDY!” St. Jerome Catholic School students greeted the Salt Grass Trail Ride as the Texas heritage group made their 105-mile-long trek from Cat Spring to Houston for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Wearing cowboy hats, boots and fringe galore to mark Feb. 23 as Go Texan Day, the students stomped and hollered when the trail riders cheered in reply.

A hat tip to Texas history, the annual region-wide Go Texan Day celebration rallies communities across the region to celebrate Texas heritage and signals the beginning of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

PHOTOS: Students welcome Texas history on parade

Young cowboys gave friendly hat tips to the women riding in the group, each earning a genial smile and happy wave. The school children also cheered for a group of youngsters who were new additions to the trail ride and its 145-plus participants and 22 wagons, eager to see someone their age sitting atop a horse.

A long history

Each year, several of the 11 official trail rides stop by a Catholic school or parish, echoing the roots of the Catholic Church in Texas, with its missionary priests on horseback.
Priests in the Archdiocese were saddled up to serve the faithful long before the trail rides began making their way to Houston. Missionary priests traveled by horse to minister to rural towns throughout southeast Texas, according to Archdiocesan history.

For years, the Salt Grass Trail Ride has passed generations of St. Jerome students, each year an iconic memory for many youngsters. On Go Texan Day, the students line Kempwood Drive and wait for the familiar clop-clop-clop sound of horse hooves.

Also on Go Texan Day, St. Ambrose Parish and School in Houston also welcomed a Western celebration when the Montgomery-based Sam Houston Trail Riders visited the northwest Houston school. The same group also camps overnight the night before at Regina Caeli Parish, where Father Charles Van Vliet, FSSP; Father William Rock, FSSP; and Father Daniel Alloy, FSSP, welcomed the group.

The 63-year-old Texas Independence Trail Ride, which travels 75 miles from Hitchcock to Houston, brought its 14 wagons to the Catholic Charismatic Center in Houston’s East End also on Go Texan Day, Feb. 23. Father Juan Pablo Orozco, CC, parochial vicar at the Charismatic Center, greeted the trail riders as they pulled into the parish. Earlier in their trail ride, the group passed St. Bernadette Parish and School on Feb. 20.

A grand event

Throughout the rest of the rodeo, which continues until March 17, Catholic school students and parochial members are participating in the region’s largest event and the world’s largest livestock show and rodeo.

Some are showing livestock like chickens, cows and rabbits, others are attending with school or parish groups, and some braver (and helmeted) students are tackling the white-knuckled, pint-sized rodeo of the mutton-bustin’ tradition, where five- or six-year-old kids grab tight onto sprinting sheep.

Students of all ages seeking a less thrilling ride but with no less talent are also entered the art show, with entries (think charcoal, paint, sculpture and more) as diverse as the city itself.