Rodeo cowboys tend to be cool customers as they climb into their mounts.

“It’s just another horse,” said bareback bronc rider Clay Stone, 25, from Blackfoot, Idaho, as he readied to ride before a packed Coliseum crowd Monday.

Not so, for the National Western’s youngest riding competitors — five-to-seven-year-old children featured in the rodeo’s ever-popular mutton bustin’ event.

Six kids, all of them weighing less than the 55-pound qualifying maximum, were out-of-their-minds excited as they huddled inside the gates wrapping the crowded arena, as rodeo queens from Nevada, Utah, and other mountain states kept them close at hand.

The crowd went wild when the first tiny rider lumbered out of the gate atop a 150-pound sheep, no more anxious to be ridden than your average bull or saddle bronc might be.

“None of the other kids wanted to do it,” said Takeyon Harrison of Denver, as his daughter Keyara awaited her shot. The bank Harrison works for had offered a slot to employees, but Harrison was the only taker.

Champ Hysaw, who just turned 6, clad in a helmet and protective vest, was chomping at the bit for his turn.

“He likes to be active,” said dad Courtney Hysaw. “He’s a dive-ahead type of guy.”

Rides are scored on how long the kid stays aboard, how far down the arena they go, and on how well they grip the wool. In addition to events in the packed rodeo arena, the National Western typically features a full hour of mutton bustin’ in the historic Stadium Arena near National Western’s Hall of Education.

How do you train for the sport?

“Lots of piggyback rides,” said Jermehl Redwine, whose son Jermehl, Jr., was set to go.

“I’m his mutton.”