Pleasures of the Horseflesh

WestWorld used to be Horseworld. The area surrounding it was a leaky desert floodplain in the middle of nowhere. Now, the floodplain’s been wrangled into subservience and the facility’s surrounded by upscale-yet-bland north Scottsdale office parks. But the pleasures of the horseflesh live on at WestWorld, as does a flicker of the Western spirit that once defined this spectacularly beautiful slice of nowhere before half of California moved here and erected upscale-yet-bland office parks. This is particularly true during the Parada del Sol Rodeo, a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association-sanctioned event now in its 53rd year.

Speaking of progress, the first four Parada rodeos were held in a dirt lot where Scottsdale Fashion Square now stands, but the old-school cowboy affair is now safely ensconced in Equidome Arena at WestWorld.