Fitted in a blue buttoned-down shirt and a cream-colored sombrero, 17-year-old Carlos Miranda guides his horse nicknamed “El Chapo” up to a gate that will soon fling wide open.
Men on horseback tease the young charro as his horse trots into position. Friends and family look on from the beds of their trucks, sipping from cans of Modelo on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Strasburg, Colorado.
For Miranda, getting to the gate — not the high-speed chase he’s about to embark on — is the most nerve-wracking moment of this sport. All eyes are on him. Chapo’s eyes, though, are locked onto the anxious steer.
