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.

return to SHAMPOO 3