Rodeo

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Robert E. Schnakenberg

Roping, riding, and bronco busting all form part of one of the oldest American spectator competitions, the rodeo. What began as a way for working cowboys to blow off steam has developed into a lucrative international skills competition replete with glitzy costumes, whooping audiences, and Broadway production values. Less violent than wrestling and even smellier than the circus, rodeo remains an enormously popular family entertainment option across the United States and Canada.

Traditionally, rodeo competition consists of eight events divided into two categories: rough stock and timed. In rough stock events, cowboys (or, in some instances, cowgirls) try to ride bucking horses or bulls for a specified length of time. The traditional rough stock events are bareback bronco riding (or "busting"), saddled bronco riding, and bull riding.

In timed events, contestants must complete a certain task, such as roping a steer, within a required number of seconds. The five traditional timed rodeo events are calf roping, steer wrestling, team roping, steer roping, and barrel racing. Customarily, female competitors take part only in barrel racing, a precision equestrian event that involves riding a horse in a cloverleaf pattern around an array of barrels. The advent of all-female rodeos, however, has resulted in the easing of this restriction.

The word rodeo derives from the Spanish word rodear, meaning to encircle or surround. Spanish settlers in sixteenth-century Mexico used the word rodeo to refer to a cattle round-up. It did not attain its present-day meaning--that of a skills competition devoted to round-up events--until the late nineteenth century. At that time, cowboys looked forward to the Fourth of July holiday (or "Cowboy Christmas" as it was also called) as an opportunity, not to grill up some burgers and set off some fireworks, but to ride through town roping steers and corralling them in the public square. Eventually, this activity was systematized into a form resembling today's organized rodeos.

A number of states, including Texas, Colorado, and Wyoming, take credit for being the birthplace of rodeo, though its true place of parentage is unclear. Cheyenne, Wyoming, was the scene of one of the first anarchic exhibitions, on Independence Day in 1872, when a band of cowboys thundered down its main drag on the backs of unruly steers. The next year, bronco busting was added to the mix, and thus began the diversification of activities that led to today's eight standard rodeo events.

Buffalo Bill Cody became one of the first impresarios of the rodeo during the 1880s. In 1883, Cody and others formed Buffalo Bill's Wild West, a traveling show that toured the United States and parts of Europe. The show included a mock battle with Indians and a demonstration of Cody's shooting skill. In addition, cowboys competed for prizes in the arenas of roping, riding, and bronco busting, and there was always a show-stopping bull ride finale. Cody used the term "rodeo" to sell these extravaganzas to a fascinated public. Sometimes as many as a thousand cowboys participated.

By the 1890s, rodeos had proliferated throughout the cattle-raising regions of the American west. Over time, they spread to other areas of the country as well. Today, rodeos are held in many parts of the United States, Canada, and Australia. The sport's continuing popularity can be credited to its increasing concentration on entertainment value, as a one-time leisure pursuit for drunken cowboys metastasized into a multi-million dollar entertainment extravaganza.

Nowhere were the changes in rodeo more visible than in the contributions of its female participants. Though barred from competing in many of the events, women made significant contributions to the rodeo from its very beginnings. Female equestrian performers carved out a niche with their acrobatic feats, pleasing crowds with their ability to balance themselves on two horses as they traversed the arena. When allowed to take part in the more rough-and-tumble events, they invariably wowed spectators with their steer-roping and bronco-busting prowess.

Women achieved their most noticeable impact on rodeo, however, in the area of costuming. In the early days of motion pictures, many female rodeo performers found that winning rodeo championships was a surefire way to break into silent films, so they began wearing highly-decorated outfits to attract the attention of talent scouts. Bright-colored leggings and red velvet skirts with embroidered hems eventually gave way to bold pants, silk blouses, and eye-catching neckerchiefs. Rodeo fans became so enamored with these costumes that they soon demanded the men wear them also--to the chagrin of the blue-jeaned and brown-shirted cowboys. Glitzy get-ups like the one worn by Robert Redford in the 1979 film The Electric Horseman became de rigueur for the rodeo set, giving the sport a raucous game-show quality that turned off some purists while winning many new adherents nationwide.

Over the decades, rodeo's "new adherents" turned up in some strange places. Prison rodeo was, for many years, a popular event in America's Southern penitentiaries, but in recent years it has been deemed cruel and unusual--or at least politically incorrect. Angola Prison Rodeo, conducted annually at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana, now stands as the only remaining competition of its kind. The official rodeo program promises "inmate cowboys flying off the backs of those bulls like corn in a popper."