Melody Groves - Ropes, Reins, and Rawhide: All about Rodeo

Ropes, Reins, and Rawhide

All About Rodeo

MELODY GROVES

ISBN for this digital edition: 978-0-8263-3824-2

2006 by the University of New Mexico Press

All rights reserved. Published 2006

PRINTED IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

12 11 10 09 08 07 06 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Groves, Melody, 1952

Ropes, reins, and rawhide : all about rodeo / Melody Groves.1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8263-3822-8 (cloth : alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-8263-3822-4 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Rodeos. I. Title.

GV1834.G76 2006

791.84dc22

2006001054

Design and compostition: Melissa Tandysh

Innumerable people and countless hours of hard work go into preparing for a rodeo. Competitors, producers, entertainers, and animals live for the thrills and spills associated with this heart-stopping event. Rodeo is a team effort. And just like putting on a rodeo, this book is a team effort too. Therefore, its close to impossible to mention everyone who helped with research, insight, encouragement, permission, editing, enthusiasm, entry, and just plain help.

Putting this book together has been a wild ride, and I wish for you, the reader, to come join me. Enjoy the rodeo. Theres nothing else like it.

My sincerest thanks to the worlds best photographers:

Extra special thanks to those who gave advice and their time:

Fig. Intro.1.

This ranch rodeo bronc rider focuses on the horses shoulders to keep his seat for the eight seconds.

PHOTO BY BERT ENTWISTLE.

HEART POUNDING, blood pumping, the cowboy nods, chute gate opens and his world begins. Eight seconds of adrenaline rush. Eight seconds of gripping, pulling, and holding on. The animal under him bucks and twists attempting to dislodge the cowboys seat but the rider sticks like glue. The buzzer sounds, the cowboy dismounts, tips his hat to a cheering crowd and nods at his proud fellow riders. Just another day at the office.

Originating from real ranch work, rodeo has few, but confusing rules. In this man against beast arena, the players are many and varied, ranging from the two-footed variety to the four-legged creatures.

This book explains the ins and outs and yes, ups and downs, of this exhilarating, extreme sport called rodeo.

Fig. 1.1.

Introduced by Spaniards coming up through Mexico, horses charged their way into the American West and forever changed the Wests future.

PHOTO BY HALEY CRAWFORD.

The word rodeo comes from the Spanish word rodearto surround.

William Manns, western author

RODEO. The quintessential extreme sport. The ultimate sport. A sport born in the wilds of the American West.

To understand rodeo requires understanding a bit of American history. Rodeo today has come a long way since its humble beginnings in the American West. During the later 1700s and early 1800s, Spain controlled most of the land now considered the Southwest. Men called conquistadors dominated Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of California.

Established missions raised cattle for Americas booming markets. The need grew for skilled horsemen to handle cattle and manage the herds. Many of the men running the missions were of Spanish nobility, trained in horsemanship and roping. This expertise was passed on to their workers, known as vaqueros.

During Mexicos rule, the vaqueros found work running cattle and managing the rangeland. Even after the United States gained control of the Southwest in 1854, through the Gadsden Purchase, the vaqueros continued to work and teach their American counterparts. Their great horsemanship traditions propelled todays rodeo.

With the ending of the Civil War, cattle herds spread throughout the West and proportionally the number of cowboys grew. Once or twice a year, cowhands rounded up the cattle on the open range and drove them hundreds of miles to various market centers (stockyards).

In celebration of their job completed, the cowboys informally competed in challenges ranging from rope throwing to cutting cattle (isolating one cow from the rest of the herd). Spectators would inevitably gather to watch these rough and tough men show off their prowess.

Formal rodeo started with friendly competition between ranches when the work was done. Since cowboying tended to be a lonely job, the men were anxious to socialize and show off their abilities.

Beginning in the 1880s, the railroad arrived across the West, thus replacing the necessity of time-consuming cattle drives. Open rangeland became defined by barbed-wire fencing, thereby drastically cutting the number of cowhands. Many cowboys were forced to find a new way to make a living.

Although Deer Trail, Colorado, lays claim to the first rodeo in 1869, the first truly formal rodeo was held in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 1872. Between 1890 and 1910, rodeo emerged as public entertainment through various Wild West Shows and Fourth of July celebrations. Buffalo Bill Cody, Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, and others promoted the enchantment of the Wild West and the thrill of rodeo as far away as Europe.

Not until the first decades of the twentieth century, however, did rodeo become recognized as a competitive sport. Annual stampedes, roundups and frontier days events attracted regional audiences. It became a true spectator sport.