|
IS RODEO STRIVING FOR EXCELLENCE OR GOING
TO THE DOGS?
Anyone who is a fan or member of rodeo
hears all kinds of rumors and criticism of
what it happening in the professional
rodeo world today.
Some will say change will kill
rodeo, some will say it needs to change,
and others won’t have a clue.
So what is different in the world
of rodeo in the present time that has been
there since the beginning?
Rodeo started at community
gatherings or ranch celebrations when
cowboys challenged one another as to which
one could ride or rope the best.
We all know that is how it started.
Eventually some ingenious fellow
decided to put up a tarp around a small
bucking pen and charge admission to watch.
Then rodeo really got underway.
A pasture was generally the setting
for the earliest rodeos that were held,
where the cars and wagons were used as
barriers to keep the animals at bay.
The broncs were roped and a
horseback rider brought the cantankerous
steed to the center where a team of men
helped blindfold him, ear him down, put
the saddle on and the rider got in the
saddle.
Then the action started.
At first they rode the bronc until
he quit bucking or the cowboy fell off.
Eventually they started timing the
ride – 15 seconds, maybe ten, and I’m
sure some people said that change will be
the ‘ruin of rodeo’.
When the first association saddle
was used in 1919 and all saddle bronc
riders had to use the saddles provided by
Pendleton RoundUp, Cheyenne Frontier Days,
Boise
,
Idaho
and
Walla Walla
,
Washington
rodeos.
Don’t you know how those riders
complained, especially the ones that had
saddles made that were so ‘freaky’
they couldn’t have been bucked off if
the bronc had turned upside down.
When steer roping was criticized in
the 1920s because those ropers were
yanking those 800 and 900 pound steers
around and rodeos began eliminating the
event what took it’s place?
Yep, you guessed it.
Calf Roping.
Now in 2007 some animal rights
people complain that calves are mistreated
in the event.
We, who know rodeo, realize that a
true cowboy is not going to hurt any
animal and for the numbers of calves that
are roped, how very few are ever injured.
A true example of a cowboy’s
effort not to injure an animal is to
remember Cody Ohl at the 2001 National
Finals, when he roped his calf and jumped
off his horse and his leg gave way with an
extremely serious injury.
He drug himself to the rope to cut
it so the calf was not in jeopardy.
I can just imagine how the people
watching must have reacted when they saw
the first Brahma bull that was used in the
Bull Riding event.
Previously it had been an event
that used any bovine with horns and
cowboys either jumped off or fell off and
the animal ran away. The
cattle were never vicious or interested in
harming the rider.
I can just hear them saying,
“This will never work.”
But oh how it did, and look at the
sport today.
The cowboys tried desperately to be
heard and increase the purses, but the
producers ignored them.
They talked about it and made a
half-hearted effort in 1916, then again in
the 1920s, but it wasn’t until they
struck at
Boston
Garden
rodeo in 1936 and stood their ground were
they successful.
The Cowboy’s Turtle Association
was formed but it took time, effort and
trial and error to correct and improve the
sport.
The first suggestion of putting
rodeo on television was definitely voted
down.
In fact any rodeo that was
televised, such as Cowtown New
Jersey
, was given a big fine.
It took the ‘powers that be’ a
long time to see the merit of exposing
rodeo on television.
Now we can’t get enough
television time.
The RCA kept control of
professional rodeo for many years.
Several innovative people tried to
come up with a different concept of rodeo
– rodeo teams, where each event was
represented and competed against another
like team.
The idea was discouraged so
strongly that one originator of the idea
was black-balled and sued the
organization.
Oh what turmoil.
But the ‘right to work’ laws
during this time eventually allowed
cowboys the opportunity of competing in
other venues.
When the Professional Bull Riders
came on the scene their success lured many
of the professional rodeo bull riders
away.
One year at the National Finals
there weren’t too many bulls ridden.
However today the event is full of
good bull riders with more to spare.
The PRCA just recently put in to
effect the rule to allow team roping at
various rodeos, which was fought ‘tooth
and nail’ by some committees.
It has been in place long enough
that everyone is accepting it, maybe not
without a little mumbling under their
breath, but it is happening.
Professional rodeo is changing.
WPRA and PRCA have been in
conflict, the rodeo world was up in arms
about the possible move of the PRCA
Headquarters, which didn’t take place,
and Canadian rodeos and U. S. Rodeos have
changed their status.
Some of the top level people at
PRCA have left, and new people have taken
their place.
Some
changes work for the betterment of the
sport.
Some changes do not.
Only time will tell.
I have no solution, except as a
historian of rodeo I will report that
rodeo has always been improving, stubbing
it’s toe now and then, picking
themselves up and going on ---- to bigger
and better things for the world of rodeo.
I do know that complacency (a
feeling of contentment or satisfaction)
for very long can be a killer to any
organization.
Change is necessary.
I can hardly wait until 2008 and
see what new ideas and great things are in
store for rodeo.
Considering the fact that 80% of
our country is now urban-dwellers and when
rodeo was in it’s infancy 80% of the
U. S.
lived in the country, I am amazed that
rodeo has the fan base and number of
competitors it has today.
If you love rodeo support it,
whether it is your local rodeo or rodeo in
general.
Be positive and look forward to
what tomorrow holds because RODEO IS HERE
TO STAY but there will be change.
You can bet your boots on it!
|
