Please help me welcome today's guest author, western historical romance author Jacquie Rogers. And what could be more western than a good ole rodeo!
Let’s Rodeo
With “Much Ado About Mavericks”
Rodeo is a modern
sport and the only sport born in the United States that came from an
industry--the cattle business. It's only natural that after the chores were
done, the cowboys would have a little competition to see who could win bragging
rights of being the best, and maybe earn a few dollars, too.
The term
"rodeo" is from a Spanish word meaning to round up or encircle. So
rodeo actually is closer to our term of round-up than, say, tournament or horse
show, terms used for early rodeos. Many claim to be the first rodeo. From the University of North Carolina:
The first formal
rodeo was held in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1872. However, the first rodeo to
deliver monetary prizes was said to be in Pecos, Texas in 1883, and the first
rodeo to charge admissions was in 1888 in Prescott, Arizona. The rodeo emerged
as entertainment between 1890 and 1910 due to Midwest shows and performances
during July fourth celebrations and cattlemen conventions.
In 1882, the town of North Platte, Nebraska where Cody lived at
his Scout's Rest Ranch, wanted to celebrate the 4th of July, and asked Colonel
Cody to put the show on for them. Cody obliged, and put on what has been
considered to be one of the first rodeos in America, and was called "The
Old Glory Blowout".
This show is
still on the road today, first under the guidance of Monty Montana, and now
with Monty Montana, Jr., and the Montana family.
It was 1905 when the Millers offered to perform what they called a
'round-up' or 'buffalo chase' as an entertainment incentive for a National
Editorial Association convention. Visitors were said to come to the ranch in 30
regular and special trains, and the crowd estimated at nearly 60,000 was
thrilled to the exhibition of cowboys recreating real life ranch work from
bronc riding and roping to Tom Mix's debut as a roper and rider.
Most agree that
saddlebronc was the first official event, but not in the format we know today.
The eight-second ride hadn't been invented. Instead, the cowboy who rode the
longest, providing that the horse was still bucking, was the winner. This, too,
could be how we ended up with separate scores for cowboy and horse. (Modern
day: judges score 50 for the horse and 50 for the rider, so there's a possible
100 points for an 8-second ride.)
One of the
earliest saddle bronc stars was Waaya-Tonah-Toesits-Kahn, better known as Jackson Sundown, a Nez Perce Indian who, at 14, endured the
Nez Perce Retreat under the leadership of Chief Joseph. Sundown made it to
Canada, then moved back to Idaho in 1910 where he married and started a ranch.
His name was legend, and he last won the saddle bronc world title when he was
53 years old.
No doubt about
it, Bill Pickett was
the man who brought bulldogging, now called steer wrestling, to modern rodeo.
As the story goes, when Bill was a boy growing up in Texas, he watched the dogs
subdue cattle, and he copied their technique. He could jump on a steer, bite
its lip, and the steer would stop struggling. There's certainly no lip-biting
in modern rodeo, but it's still spectacular to watch a cowboy leap from his
horse and wrestle a steer twice his size to the ground. This is a timed
event--no points for finesse in bulldogging.
The traditional
events in rodeo are saddle bronc, bareback bronc, calf roping (tie down
roping), team roping, steer wrestling, and of course the most popular of all
events, bullriding. Of these events, only bullriding is of no use on a working
ranch, although I doubt much steer wrestling goes on, either.
Women have a
lower center of gravity than men, and even though they're generally not as
strong, many women showed they could compete on the same level as men. During
the 1910s until 1929, there were many prominent women who were champions in
their own right, performing side-by-side with the men. But in 1929, Bonnie McCarroll was killed in the bronc riding at the Pendleton Round-up in Pendleton, Oregon. A huge outcry forced
most of the rodeos in the west to ban women from competition, and the cowgirls
headed east, but eventually, their opportunities died there, too. For a brief
time in WWII, women were allowed to compete due to the lack of men, but as soon
as the war was over, women were relegated to barrel racing. Some of the
champion women athletes were: Prairie Rose Henderson, Goldie St. Clair, Bertha Blancett, Norwegian
emigrant Tillie Baldwin (first woman bulldogger), and bullrider Tad Lucas.
In Much
Ado About Mavericks (Hearts of Owyhee #3), they hold what they call a
tournament. This is set in 1885, Idaho
Territory. The heroine’s name is Jake,
short for J.K. (Janelle Kathryn). Ben is
the hero—he’s a Boston lawyer. Reginald
is also from Boston.
Reginald put on a respectable show. Over thirty seconds was considered a decent
ride on a rank horse. He came back
dirty, sweaty, and grinning. “Damn, this
is fun!”
“Even eating dirt?” Jake asked.
He wiped his face with his sleeve. “That part, I could do without.”
A few cowhands rode for less than a minute each, and then
Crip called, “Number thirty-three.”
“That’s me.” Jake
checked the buckles on her chaps and picked up her tack. “See you in about fifteen minutes.”
“Hell it only took me five minutes to saddle the horse,”
Reginald mumbled.
“It’ll only take her about two.” Ben nodded toward her. “You watch a real cowhand ride.”
She drew a sorrel stallion that had several gashes on
him. A fighter, Ben noted, just like
Jake. The two wranglers had a helluva
time quieting him, then Jake threw her saddle on his back and cinched it before
he had a chance to blow. She leapt on
him and jammed her hat over her ears. As
soon as Crip handed her the reins, she nodded.
They let go, jumped back, and ran for the fence.
The big stallion bucked hard, then galloped around the
corral twice, then bucked and bucked and bucked. Jake sat a firm seat, never flinching. The horse bucked more, by now lathered. Finally, he stopped, his head sagging, his
sides heaving. She hopped off and lead
him over to the wranglers.
“Four minutes and thirty seconds,” Crip yelled. “And she greenbroke that horse, besides!”
She ambled over to Ben.
He tipped his hat to her. “Great
ride, Jake.”
“Good enough.” She
turned away and leaned on the fence.
“Now let’s see what you can do, Boston.”
Bullriding is a
spectacular event, called the most dangerous eight seconds in sports. The only
men in more danger than bullriders are the bullfighters—rodeo clowns, but their
business is anything but funny. Some of the best I've ever seen are Wick Peth and Leon Coffee.
I loved watching
Leon Coffee fight bulls—he’s an incredibly gifted athlete, the best at cowboy
protection, and a terrific entertainer. In Down Home Ever Lovin' Mule Blues,
I patterned my hero's moves after Leon's style:
Brody did a little fancy footwork, loving the sounds of the boys'
ooo's and ahhhs, then got a laugh out of them by snagging his green derby on
one of the bull’s horns. For the grand finale, he teased the bull into
charging, then did a handspring over the bull’s head and walked the length of
his back, jumping off the tail end.
I saw Coffee do
exactly that many times at the Snake
River Stampede.
Another rodeo
clown and bullfighter that I know personally is Jim O'Keefe. He gave me this
scene:
Brody thrived on danger, just like all the other men Rita had
known until she moved to the city.
Fearless, daring, and downright foolhardy, Brody rushed to the side
of the bull, jumped up, and jerked the bullrope's tail, releasing the hung
cowboy's hand from the bull. The cowboy flew several feet in the air and landed
off to the side like a sack of potatoes.
The bull whipped around and bashed Brody in the ribs with one huge
horn. Even though Brody’s ribs were probably broken, he kept the animal away
from the downed cowboy until the chute crew could drag the unconscious man off
to the ambulance. Finally, the pick-up men herded the snorting bull back into
the corral.
Jim's ribs have
been broken a few dozen times. He has a plate in his head, steel rods in his
spine, and has had well over 200 broken bones. This is actually fairly typical
of a rodeo bullfighter.
Thrills and
spills . . . rodeo is getting more and more popular as the years go by. Yes,
the sport evolves, but it seems that the further away from the Old West we get,
the more we savor the values of family, hard work, and an honest relationship
with our animal friends and the earth. Find
a rodeo, put on your best hat and boots, grab the kids, and go have a great
time!
Links:
Website: http://www.JacquieRogers.com
Amazon Page: http://www.amazon.com/author/jacquierogers
Romancing The West: http://romancingthewest.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/JacquieRogers
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/jacquierogers
Hearts of Owyhee series
#1 - Much Ado About Marshals: http://amzn.com/B0058ON1LS
#2 - Much Ado About Madams: http://amzn.com/B007HRTQ0O
#3 - Much Ado About Mavericks: http://amzn.com/B008EDN9T4
Coming soon: #4 - Much Ado About Miners
I love rodeos. This was a great blog. Those cowboys had a hard job and sure feel old before their time in aching bones. I have all your books on Kindle and love reading about them.
ReplyDeleteI love rodeos, too, Shirl. Unfortunately, Seattle isn't exactly the hub of rodeo activity so I haven't been to one in quite a while. When we lived in Idaho, we went to several every year. Thanks for stopping by, and thanks for getting my books. :)
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