I've been to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo many times over the years, but usually to see some of the bands/entertainers. I couldn't care less about seeing calf wrangling.
I think that the reason that I enjoyed rodeos so much was mainly because I went to them on my horse, and with my friends. While we were not an actual participant in the rodeos, we loved riding ours horses around and helping with traffic supervision. I can’t remember a time I ever watched a rodeo on television, and have no interest in doing that. With the small local rodeos they had when I was a teenager, we usually knew who some of the rodeos riders were, because they were local people, or at least from somewhere nearby. North Idaho has always been cattle country, so working cows was just something that country kids did growing up. I grew up in town, so never had any experience with cattle, but I had friends who grew up on a ranch and learned those activities.