ride 'em cowboy!

If you're going to throw a big ol' down-home Texas-style party in a cavernous venue like Houston's Reliant Stadium, you'll need some powerful workhorses to set the stage. But when organizers for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo needed help, they didn't call in horses; they called in some Cats—to be precise, some Cat lift trucks. The trucks, reportedly 68 in total, were put to work moving livestock pens, 78 portable buildings, 30,000 souvenir programs, 600,000 visitor guides and all of the other supplies needed to stage the rodeo. During just one day of set-up, the trucks collectively logged more than 30 miles. But even when the set-up was complete, their work wasn't over. Once the event began, the trucks were kept busy delivering three tons of Texas barbecue and 840,000 bottles of beer. Yee-ha!