HISTORY9 - History of Rodeo
Pat and I have recently attended
rodeos in Tucson and Sells, Arizona.
Belatedly this time, here is a short history of rodeo.
Origin and History
Rodeo today is a competitive
sport that arose out of the practices of Spanish ranchers and their ranch hands
(vaqueros) in Mexico, a mixture of cattle wrangling and bullfighting, that
dates back to the 16th-century conquistadors. The American English word “rodeo” is taken
directly from the Spanish word rodeo,
which roughly translates into English as “round up.” The Spanish word is derived from the verb rodear, meaning “to surround” or “go
around,” used to refer to a “a pen for cattle at a fair or market,” derived
from Latin rota or totare, meaning to
rotate or go around.
Early rodeos in northern Mexico
in the 1820s and 1830 were informal events at fairgrounds, racetracks, fiestas,
and festivals that tested the vaqueros work skills against one another. Rodeo came to the United States in the middle
of the 19th century when the U.S. gained much of northern Mexico lands
in wars or treaties, namely the Texas Revolution (1845), the U.S.-Mexican War
(1848), and the Gadsden Purchase (1854). Informal rodeos continued in the western U.S.
and quickly expanded to western Canada.
After the U.S. Civil War, more
formal rodeo competitions emerged, with the first held in Cheyenne, Wyoming in
1872. Prescott, Arizona claims the first
professional rodeo, when it charged admission and awarded trophies in 1888.
Between 1890 and 1910, rodeos
became public entertainment, sometimes combined with Wild West shows featuring
individuals such as Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, and other charismatic
stars. By 1910, several major rodeos
were established in western North America, including the Calgary Stampede in
Alberta, Canada; the Pendleton Round-Up in Oregon; and Cheyenne Frontier Days,
in Wyoming. Starting in the 1920s, rodeo-type
events also became popular for a time in the big cities of the Eastern United
States, with large venues, such as Madison Square Garden in New York City, and
with associated entertainers like singing cowboy Gene Autry playing a part in
popularizing rodeos for new crowds. Before World War II, most popular rodeo events
included trick and fancy roping and riding, where riders performed acrobatic
stunts on horseback. By 1939, rodeos
attracted twice as many spectators as auto racing and baseball.
 |
Colorful posters from some of the most famous rodeos. |
There was no standardization of
events for rodeo competition until 1929 when associations began forming to
sanction events, select judges, and establish purse awards and point systems
for the competitive events. Today, in
the U.S., professional rodeos are governed and sanctioned by the Professional
Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) and Women’s Professional Rodeo Association,
while other associations govern children’s, high school, collegiate and senior
rodeos. Associations also exist for
Native Americans and other minority groups.
The annual professional rodeo circuit concludes with the PRCA National
Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Contemporary rodeo is a lucrative
business. More than 7,500 cowboys compete for over thirty million dollars at
more than 700 rodeos annually. Today,
American rodeo is particularly popular throughout the western United States and
the Canadian province of Alberta. Rodeo
is the official state sport of Wyoming, South Dakota, and Texas, and is being
proposed as the official sport of Alberta.
American rodeo has also expanded to Central America, South America,
Australia, and New Zealand.
Events
American style professional
rodeos generally include timed events and rough stock events. Timed events typically include calf roping,
where the contestant ropes a running calf, dismounts and runs to the calf,
throws it to the ground, and ties three feet together; team roping, where two
people capture and restrain a full-grown steer; steer wrestling or bulldogging,
where the rider jumps off his horse onto a steer and wrestles it to the ground
by grabbing it by the horns; and barrel racing, where horse and rider gallop
around a cloverleaf pattern of barrels, making agile turns without knocking the
barrels over. Rough stock events include
bronc (bucking horse) riding - both with a saddle and bareback; and bull
riding, where a cowboy rides a full-grown bull.
Because bulls are unpredictable and may attack a fallen rider, rodeo
clowns work during bull-riding competition to distract the bulls and help
prevent injury to competitors. Rodeo deaths are rare, but injuries are common in this
rough sport.
In the old days
there were no chutes or gates for rough stock to enter the rodeo arena with
riders already astride - and no time limits.
Rough stock were blindfolded and restrained in the center of the arenas,
where the riders mounted. The animals
were then set free. In the larger
arenas, rides often lasted more than 10 minutes.
A typical modern rodeo begins with a "Grand
Entry", in which mounted riders, many carrying flags, including the
American flag, state flags, banners representing sponsors, and others enter the
arena at a gallop, circle once, come to the center of the arena and stop while
the remaining participants enter. The grand entry is used to introduce some of
the competitors, officials, and sponsors.
Variety acts, which may include musicians, trick riders or
other entertainment may occur halfway through the rodeo at intermission.
Women
Historically, women have long
participated in rodeo, starting at the Cheyenne rodeo in 1901, and, by 1920,
women were competing in rough stock events - riding broncs and bulls, and
roping steers; relay races; and trick riding. But after Bonnie McCarroll died from being thrown from a bucking bronco in the
Pendleton Round-Up in 1929 and Marie Gibson died in a collision of two horses
at an Idaho rodeo in 1933, women's competitive participation was curbed. Rodeo women organized into various
associations and staged their own rodeos. Today, women's barrel racing is
included as a competitive event in professional rodeo. Women compete equally with men in team
roping, sometimes in mixed-sex teams. Women also compete in traditional roping
and rough stock events at women-only rodeos.
Minorities
Mexican Americans are so
integrated into the southwestern cowboy culture that they are not visibly
distinct.
Native American and Hispanic
cowboys compete in modern rodeos in small numbers.
African Americans constitute a
smaller minority of rodeo contestants, though many early rodeo champions, such
as Nat Love,
were African American. Inventor of bulldogging, Bill Pickett, and
bronc rider Bill Stahl were both elected to the Cowboy Hall of Fame. During the 1940s and 1950s, African Americans
created the Southwestern Colored Cowboys Association. Although the PRCA never
formally excluded people of color, pre-1960s racism effectively kept many African
Americans, out of white competitions. In the 1960s, bull rider Myrtis Dightman
vied for national honors and qualified for the National Finals Rodeo. In the
1990s, the Black World Championship Rodeo was held in New York City and other
locations across the United States.
In 1976, the first gay rodeo was
held in Reno, Nevada as a charity fundraiser. Several regional gay
rodeo organizations were formed in the following years, and, in 1985, the
existing organizations formed the International Gay Rodeo Association as
a national sanctioning body.
 |
| Rodeo handbill advertising famous black cowboy Bill Pickett. |
Animal Treatment
Controversy
Protests were first raised regarding rodeo animal
cruelty in the 1870s,
and, beginning in the 1930s, some states enacted laws curtailing rodeo
activities and other events involving animals. In the 1950s, the then Rodeo Cowboys
Association (RCA, later the PRCA) worked with the American Humane Association
to establish regulations protecting the welfare of rodeo animals that were
acceptable to both organizations. The PRCA realized that public education
regarding rodeo and the welfare of animals was needed to keep the sport alive.
Over the years, conditions for animals in rodeo improved. Today, the
PRCA and other rodeo sanctioning organizations have stringent regulations to
ensure rodeo These rules require provisions for injured
animals, a veterinarian's presence at all rodeos (a similar requirement exists
for other equine events), padded flank straps, horn protection for steers,
and spurs with dulled, free-spinning rowels. Animals must also be protected
with fleece-lined flank straps for bucking stock and horn wraps for roping
steers.
Laws governing rodeo vary widely. In the American west, some states incorporate
the regulations of the PRCA into their statutes as a standard by which to
evaluate if animal cruelty has occurred. On the other hand, some events and practices
are restricted or banned in other states, including California, Rhode Island,
and Ohio. St. Petersburg,
Florida is the only locality in the United States with a complete ban on rodeo.
Internationally, rodeo is banned
in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and other European nations have
placed restrictions on certain practices.
A number of humane and animal rights organizations have policy statements
that oppose many rodeo practices and often the events themselves. Some also
claim that regulations vary from vague to ineffective and are frequently
violated. Other groups assert
that any regulation still allows rodeo animals to be subjected to gratuitous
harm for the sake of entertainment, and therefore rodeos should be banned
altogether.
In response to these concerns, a number of cities and states, mostly in
the eastern half of the United States, have passed ordinances and laws governing
rodeo. Pittsburgh, for example, specifically prohibits
electric prods or shocking devices, flank or bucking straps, wire tie-downs,
and sharpened or fixed spurs or rowels. Pittsburgh also requires humane
officers be provided access to any and all areas where animals may go - specifically
pens, chutes, and injury pens. The state of Rhode Island has banned tie-down
roping and certain other practices. Other locales have similar ordinances and
laws.
Prison
Rodeos have even been held in
prisons, with inmates as contestants, as a form of rehabilitation and to raise
money in associated activities like concessions and craft sales. Notable past prison rodeos include the Texas
prison rodeo in Huntsville, Texas, held annually from 1931-1986, and the
Oklahoma prison rodeo held each year from 1940-2009. Budgetary issues, shifting prisoner
populations, and vocal animal rights protests caused these two rodeos to stop.
The most famous prison rodeo, and
the only current prison rodeo, is the Angola Prison Rodeo held at the Louisiana
State Penitentiary, a maximum security prison.
The Angola Prison Rodeo started in 1965 and continues today with a
performance in April and on every Sunday in October - operating under PRCA
rules. The rodeo raises funds for
religious educational programs for prisoners.
Arizona
Arizona currently holds about 60
rodeos annually - all over the state, in big cities, small towns, military
installations, and Indian reservations. The
“World’s Oldest Continuous Rodeo” in Payson, started in 1884. The “World’s Oldest Professional Rodeo”
started in Prescott in 1888 and today is called the White Mountain Apache Fair
and Rodeo.
The “longest running All-Indian
Rodeo and Fair Celebration” started in 1939 in Sells, the capital of the Tohono O'odham Nation and the home of several of their tribal
businesses. The small town hosted the 81st
annual rodeo and fair on February 1-3, 2019 in the Silas R. Hendricks Memorial
Arena, named after a 30-year member of the rodeo committee, at the Eugene P.
Tashquinth Sr. Livestock Complex, named after longtime official rodeo announcer. The rodeo part of the celebration includes a
lesser-known, but one of the most exciting and skill-required events of rodeo,
a wild horse race, where unbroken horses are released into the arena and
three-man cowboy teams try to hold, saddle, and cinch a horse, with the rider
climbing aboard to ride the horse across the finish line on the other side of
the arena. The celebration also includes
a complete rodeo and parade, and a fair consisting of full carnival; cultural
performances; traditional games, dances and music; food booths; exhibits; and business
expos - the tribe’s largest social event of the year.
 |
| Three-man cowboy teams try to corral unbroken horses in the the wild-horse race event at the Sells Rodeo. (Courtesy of Bob Ring, 2019) |
 |
| Bareback horse-riding event at the Sells Rodeo. (Courtesy of Pat Wood, 2019) |
Since Pat and I live in
Tucson, here is little more info on our rodeo:
In 1925 Leighton Kramer, a winter visitor, conceived the idea of La Fiesta de los Vaqueros Tucson
Mid-Winter Rodeo and Parade to draw visitors to Tucson during the winter season. The event was to give visitors a taste of
cowboy range work and glamorize Tucson’s Wild West notoriety. The first Tucson Rodeo was held at Kramer
Field, now a neighborhood called Catalina Vista, east of Campbell Boulevard
between Grant and Elm Streets. As a
result of rapid growth, in 1932 the rodeo event moved to the abandoned
municipal airport field at South 6th Avenue and Irvington Road. Seating at the Rodeo grounds has increased
from 3,000 in 1932 to 11,000 today. The
Tucson Rodeo has grown to a nine-day event and is one of the top 25
professional rodeo events in North America, with 650 contestants for prize
monies exceeding $460,000. The
associated Rodeo Parade, the “world’s longest non-motorized parade,” is watched
by 200,000 people along its two-mile route.
Proceeds from the Tucson Rodeo go to benefit a rodeo athletes’
scholarship at the UA, the Downtown Lions Club, and various Rotary Clubs and
4-H groups.
Tucson is the only rodeo-hosting city that closes its public schools so
people can enjoy the parade and rodeo.
 |
| This cowboy has just roped the calf and is about to dismount to throw and tie the calf at the Tucson Rodeo. (Courtesy of Pat Wood, 2016) |
Comments
Post a Comment