Jumper Bloom
Party of Year
after David Longstreath
.
Water buffaloes competed in four categories:
smallest, small, medium and heavy.
to celebrate the end of the rainy season.
.
And there was heavy unofficial betting going on
.
Jockeys and handlers spend a fair amount of time just getting on
the beasts
.
Sri, a one-ton competitor whose name means
“good,”
barreled down the 130-yard track to victory,
winning
the biggest prize of the day—$475 and an irrigation water pump.
.
What makes for a good racing water buffalo?
“You need a buffalo that likes to run.”
.
At the sound of a whistle,
five black water buffaloes set off,
raising dust from the track and cheers from the crowd.
.
High school bands in colorful Hawaiian shirts
tooted American classics as teen-age
beauty queens perched atop decorated
buffaloes waved to the crowd.
.
Accustomed to pulling plows slowly though flooded rice paddies,
the animals hesitate at the starting line.
.
But once they take off, the ground thunders under their hoofs.