It's Rodeo Time...All the Time

If you were nice enough to read my previous blog, then you know that I went to the rodeo the other day, Friday, with my relatives who were in town. It seems that every time I go to the rodeo, I am reminded of how much I enjoy the atmosphere and entertainment of the spectacle. Let us start with a little history… the beginnings of rodeo can be traced back to the ranches of the early 1700’s, when the Spanish ruled the West. The Spanish cattlemen, known as vaqueros, would influence the American cowboy with their clothing, language, traditions and equipment which would in turn influence the modern sport of rodeo. Duties on these early ranches included roping, horse breaking, riding, herding, branding, and much more. Americans from the East came into contact with Spanish, Mexican, Californio, and Texican cowboys and began to copy and adapt their styles and traditions of working the ranches. Ranchers from the Southwest would organize long cattle drives, to bring cattle to the stockyards in towns like Kansas City, where trains would carry the cattle east. This was the golden age of the cowhand. At the end of the long trails, these new American "Cowboys" would often hold informal competitions among themselves and the various different outfits to see which group had the best riders, ropers and all-around best drovers. It would be from these competitions that modern rodeo would eventually be born. In the modern era, rodeo has continued to grow from its roots as a working ranch competition to a huge national sport. With the continued success, rodeo has seen growth in the number of associations at regional and state levels. Rodeo has also established itself at the high school and college level. There is no doubt that rodeo will continue through the 21st century.

Rodeo is one of the original extreme sports. Today’s professional rodeo holds a distinct position in the world of modern sports having come directly from a working-lifestyle. Early rodeo began as the everyday chores of working ranches on the great plains of the American West. Modern rodeos take place in a fenced, dirt surfaced area known as an arena. Arenas can be either indoor or outdoor. Remarkably there are no standard sizes for arenas, but all of them contain bucking chutes, and roping chutes (usually at opposite ends of the arena). Rodeo is also unique in that it is a sport made up of several different events, each with their own style of competition, rules, and rewards. While there are many events that are specific to different regions of the U.S. and world, seven are recognized as standard events in most professional rodeo. The seven main events of a rodeo are (in the standard order of competition): bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc, tie-down roping, barrel racing, and bull riding. These seven events can be broken down into two categories, the roughstock or judged events (bareback, saddle bronc, and bull riding) and the timed events (steer wrestling, barrel racing, tie-down and team roping).

The roughstock events are the wild, adrenaline filled events of rodeo. The dangerous nature of these events makes them extremely exciting to watch. Competitors compete in rodeo performances against the other cowboys or cowgirls entered in each specific event. Horses and bulls are normally bucked-out only once per day and each time that a competitor rides is called a go-round. These are the wild, adrenaline filled events of rodeo. The dangerous nature of these events makes them extremely exciting to watch. Competitors compete in rodeo performances against the other cowboys or cowgirls entered in each specific event. Horses and bulls are normally bucked-out only once per day and each time that a competitor rides is called a go-round. Scoring for the roughstock events is the same for all three of the events, although different criteria exist for judging the animals in each event. All cowboys competing in the roughstock events must use only one hand to ride and touching yourself or the animal with the free hand results in a disqualification and a no score. To receive a score, a cowboy must make a qualified 8 second ride. The 8 second length of a qualified ride was devised purely for the safety and well-being of the animals involved. After 8 seconds the horse or bulls bucking ability decreases because of fatigue, adrenaline loss, etc. Once the buzzer sounds and there are no disqualification, the ride receives a score given by 2 to 4 official judges, depending on the rodeo. Scores are given to both the competitor and the animal. Each judge scores 1-25 points for the cowboy and 1-25 points for the animal, with a maximum score being 100 points or a perfect ride (in the case of 4 judges they score the same but divide by 2).

The timed events, as the name implies, use stopwatches to track the times for each event, and the lowest time wins. All the timed events, except barrel racing use a barrier, which is strung across the roping chutes. This makes the event more challenging as the barrier prevents the competitor from getting too much of a head start on the livestock. Breaking the barrier results in a time penalty in each event.

The atmosphere of a rodeo can depend greatly on where it is taking place or at what level. PRCA events are usually quite electric and have a widely diverse crowd because they take place in larger arenas in more urban areas. While regional events tend to have crowds composed of what you would expect the “typical” rodeo fan to be, often because they take place in rural areas at outdoor arenas. The Mesquite Rodeo, which is held at Resistol Arena, attracts a wide cross section of people and rodeos in and of themselves tends to bring curious spectators no matter where you are. As a man, I enjoy the rodeo because I enjoy the simple things in life…girls who wear boots and cowboy hats. The new trend I’ve noticed time and time again is a woman wearing boots and either short shorts or a short skirt, which is sexy the majority of the time, but if you’ve ever been to Mesquite, you know that there are an abundance of people there who have no business in shorts. Aside from the eye candy, you get to enjoy one of the sweetest smells in the world, manure. It takes being around it more than a time or two to appreciate it, but to me evokes visions of hard work, discipline, and cattle. Rodeo is one of the few sporting events where you can get a brisket sandwich with meat that probably came from one of the competitors (or a relative of theirs). It’s laid back and, more often than not, you end up in pleasant conversation with the person next to you about your childhood memories of rodeo to the point that you forget to watch the competition. There’s no replays, no yelling at judges or umpires, and you clap for everyone who comes out of the chutes regardless if they had a good ride or not. And, let us not forget that seeing a barrel rider rein her horse around the last turn, flexing her legs in the stirrups, and riding full speed into the tunnel with her hair flowing in the wind is extremely hot.

So, let’s all go to the rodeo…COWBOY UP!