Modern Cowboys Maintain Traditional Western Culture Through Rodeo Sports

Armed with a straw hat, spurred leather boots and a single glove, a 145-pound man mounts his opponent: an erratic beast weighing at least 1,700 pounds. This sport is bull riding, and a single ride never lasts more than the predetermined time limit of 8 seconds. “Most people black out their first few rides,” said Lane Dixon, a bull rider from New Mexico. “It starts fast. Usually the first second has two large jumps [from the bull] that you, the rider, react to.” For professional riders like Dixon, it’s difficult to explain a typical ride because of the speed and intensity. “When you get ‘tapped off’ [a term riders use to describe being in sync with the bull and in control of the ride] everything slows down. You are able to anticipate the bull’s movements and move yourself into a position to take the force and stay on until the end,” he said. “It’s thrilling,” adds rodeo aficionado and rancher Connor Myllymaki. “You never know what’s going to happen. It could really be that death-defying act.” Rodeo folklore holds that in 1869 two gangs of rival cowboys met in Deer Trail, Colo. to settle a dispute over who was best at ranching. An audience from across the state watched them go head-to-head at basic farming tasks: calf roping, saddle “bronc” riding and wild horse training. Gradually these competitions developed into what we know today as the rodeo sports – bull riding, steer wrestling, tie-down roping and team roping. Events are a salute to traditional ranching culture. “This is how the cowboys worked before the machinery came along,” Myllymaki said...more