Anyone up for a game of
‘cowboy poker’?Beauty and the Beast Rodeo Concert
By Nadine Kam
Features Editor
Star-BulletinPatrick Ching hangs out with bulls, forehead to forehead, so much that he recognizes them by scent. Bulls also have the ability to sniff out friend or foe, and that may mean all the difference between being plowed over or left sitting when some of Ching's friends demonstrate cowboy poker at the "Beauty and the Beast Rodeo Concert" Friday and Saturday in Waimanalo.
Call them crazy, but the game -- popular on the rodeo circuit for about three years -- goes like this: The cowboys set up table and chairs in the middle of a corral. Once the "game" is set up, a bull is let loose in the ring. The bull rushes the table and players. The guy left sitting wins.
The prize comprises entry fees from each participant, donations from businesses and contributions from onlookers, all put in the pot before the game begins to make the sweating worthwhile.
Y'ALL COME OUT
What: Beauty and the Beast Rodeo Concert, with bull riding, barrel racing and cowboy poker. Also, raku painting and firing, stick pony races, music by Dita Holifield and Detour South Friday and music by Rio and Showdown Saturday
"It's funny; sometimes the bull just comes in and plows the table," said Ching, who has sat through enough games to know "your heart pounds real fast."
"Sometimes they come up and sniff you. You really gotta stay stiff. If you flinch, the bull attacks."
For those most familiar with Ching's delicate renderings of flora and fauna, it's hard to imagine the sensitive artist in bull-riding mode. "All my life I've had people telling me, 'Don't hurt your hands.' My sense of balance is a little different from most people. I spend so much time being responsible," he said. "I need to get my physical kicks in just a few seconds, I guess."
The rodeo is a result of his responsibility. It's a fund-raiser for the Naturally Hawaiian Art School, run out of his gallery in Waimanalo. About 300 people, ages 10 to 80, have taken his classes and his aim is to one day expand to Kauai, where he once worked as a ranger for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
"No matter what you do, you start with a vision. But with me, I really try to make it happen. I was 16 when I decided I was gonna make it as an artist or die trying. This is not like a business for me. It's not a venture where if I make money, I stay. Bankruptcy is not an option for me."
And when he needs release from day-to-day worries, he goes to the bulls. "I sit with them and eat my lunch. I like being around bulls. I like the smell of them."There's a stigma attached to bull riding. People think we're cruel to the bulls. But if you spend any time with us, you'll see we're so protective of them. We treat them like royalty. We don't let anybody disrespect them."
The love started at an early age when Ching enjoyed playing cowboy on stick ponies. He saw bulls as "the most beautiful and scary thing I could think of."
He moved to Waimanalo in 1993 and finally advanced from admiring bulls to riding them, learning a lot about people and himself in the process.
"When you're riding bulls or near them, all you worst fears and best successes are right there.
"People who enjoy riding or who are good at it develop a real strong positive attitude. There's no room for negativity or whining. You're conditioned to respond in a storm, that's what we call it.
"It's hard on your body but good on your mind."
After enduring "countless" broken bones and shoulder dislocations, Ching no longer rides much. He's turned his attention to clowning, and gets to be the barrel clown for this rodeo, appearing both days.
The barrel clown is the one rolled out in a barrel for the bull to toss around. Inside, where he can only brace himself, he said, "It's like being hit by a truck."
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