Where rodeo reigns, mutton bustin' is the first notch in a little cowboy's belt

SANTA FE, N.M. - It's 30 seconds before his big rodeo ride, and Julian Apodaca looks as if he wants to disappear under the wide brim of his white cowboy hat. He's staring down at his boots, rubbing at his teary eyes. Julian's father, a former junior bull-riding champion, has a hand on each of his 5-year-old son's shoulders. "It's OK, hijo," Vince Apodaca says as somebody plucks the hat off the boy's head and replaces it with a helmet. "Cowboy up, OK? I don't want no crying when you get on there." This is the world of a little-known but beloved rodeo event where kids a few years out of diapers ride sheep just as the big boys ride bulls. Suburban parents put their kids in Little League. In the country, where rodeo is king, parents sign up their kids for Mutton Bustin'. In a flash, a rodeo hand lifts Julian from his father's arms and swings him onto the back of an unhappy sheep, which is jerking around in a small pen. "I love you!" Julian's dad calls out as the gate comes up. The sheep shoots into the arena, and there's Julian, clinging tightly to its neck. Suddenly the animal cuts right and Julian slips left, tumbling into the dirt. As if that wasn't bad enough, the sheep kicks him with a hind hoof as it stumbles away. There are gasps all around. Then Julian stands up, wobbles a bit, and grins...ChicagoTribune