Broncos losing their buck? Rodeo man worries weaker breeds are emerging

John Growney used to travel to ranches in Oregon and around the West on the lookout for cantankerous saddle horses he could turn into rodeo broncs. "I used to find 50 a year" to audition as potential saddle-broncs and bareback bucking horses, recalls the 65-year-old rodeo stock contractor. "Now, we never try out one." Horses that buck off cowboys are extremely tough to find these days on Western ranches, said the Red Bluff, Calif., businessman, during a break in festivities at the Chief Joseph Days Celebration here last month. Of necessity, Growney now breeds his own bucking horses. What happened to all those fire-breathing, ranch-bred cayuses that loved starting off a morning by pitching a cowboy into a corral fence? Growney says they were an invitation to lawsuits. Ranchers have changed their breeding programs. "They are breeding the buck away," Growney said. But Growney argues that there's an unfortunate genetic byproduct to the new breeding regimen: Some of the hardiness and stamina embodied in such horses may be vanishing as well. "When you build for stamina, it builds for an ornery cockiness," and a horse like that is inclined to buck, Growney said. Growney is probably correct that breeding the buck out of ranch horses will cost some incremental toughness, said Mary Woodworth, of the fifth generation Schadler Ranch, Inc., near Adel. Her family began ranching in Lake County in 1898, and "was known for having cranky horses" -- her term for snorty cayuses that liked to buck. "But cattle ranches no longer need the same kind of horses," continued Woodworth, 36. The advent of pickups and horse trailers have reduced the miles cowhands need to ride daily on horseback, she said. Many ranchers now prefer a smart horse that can "read" a cow and help sort cattle in a corral over one capable of carrying a rider 25 miles at a trot to check water holes and fences, she said. "That is not something that is needed anymore," Woodworth said...more