Rodeos: The Macho Cowboy Myth

When I was an innocent young thing, I found myself at the annual Pike's Peak or Bust Rodeo, gaping at a famous actor atop his magnificent mount who was waving his ten-gallon hat and grinning at the cheering audience. His name was Rex Allen, he was a cowboy movie star, and I was in love. I don't remember much at all about the rodeo events, but Sexy Rexy sure made an impression on my sensitive psyche. But then, I was a sucker for cowboys, being from Long Island, where the closest I ever got to a horse was a pony ride I was forced into taking as a kid (crying the whole time).

I was an avid watcher of TV westerns in the 50s and 60s. Maverick, Wagon Train, Sugarfoot, Zorro, The Lone Ranger, Have Gun, Will Travel, Bonanza and Gunsmoke were just a few of the series Hollywood churned out to entertain and confuse the home viewer. Not to mention the dozens of movie westerns that made stars of actors like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, William Boyd, Randolph Scott, John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Stewart, and Alan Ladd. I spent many years believing that cowboys were macho, romantic and brave, and that they adored their horses and all the other animals in their lives.

Guess what? I was wrong. A cowboy's life is rough on the cowboy (who, at least, has chosen that life), and even rougher on his animals (who have no choice). Romance has nothing to do with it. It's dirty, nasty work at low pay. It's also the kind of life that coarsens one's attitude toward animals, turning them into objects for exploitation. And the rodeo, it turns out, is the result of bored cowboys looking to have some fun at the expense of these innocent animals. It's also a generally inaccurate depiction of how animals are treated at a real life working ranch (which is bad enough). Want some examples?

The staple of every rodeo is the bucking horse. At real ranches, wild horses buck before they're broken; at rodeos, a bucking strap, cinched tightly around the abdomen and pinching the genitals-as well as electric prods, sharp sticks, and caustic ointments-force an otherwise docile horse to leap around in wild contortions.

Calf roping is a popular rodeo event. On a ranch, calves are chased down a chute into something called a head gate, where they are held; at rodeos, calves are forced to run at great speeds. When the rope stops them abruptly, they sustain severe bruising, broken bones, internal bleeding, and/or broken necks, ribs and backs. Usually, only one rodeo is needed to end the life of the average rodeo calf. Calf roping is an expensive "sport". J. K. Hardy, a veterinarian and steer-roper, has commented: "I keep 30 head of cattle around for practice, at $200 a heard. You can cripple three or four in an afternoon. . . it gets to be a pretty expensive hobby."

Steer roping, also known as steer busting, is the adult version of calf roping, and so brutal that it's banned at rodeos in most states. A less violent version is practiced on working ranches so as not to injure too many cattle and lower profits.

How about two more crowd pleasers: bull riding and steer wrestling? Well, these are activities you just won't see on a working ranch (small favors), but for financial, not humane reasons. In bull riding, electric prods are used to torment the bull and a bucking strap ensures that he will jump around wildly and give the cowboy a brief and bumpy ride. Steer wrestling involves a contestant jumping from a horse onto the head and neck of a steer and twisting the animal to the ground.

Another charming event that you won't see on a real ranch is the wild cow-milking contest, in which a nursing mother cow is separated for a period of time from her calf (causing both mother and calf extreme anxiety). Then the mother is forced to run around the arena chased by a mugger (who catches and ropes her) and a milker (who grabs her and tries to squeeze as much milk out of her overly swollen udders as he can.) The milker who gets the most milk wins. Sound like a fun contest? Not for the mother and calf.

Mutton busting is an audience participation rodeo event that involves sending kids to chase and mount sheep, terrifying the sheep while putting the kids in danger of injury at the same time (Double your pleasure, I guess). Another event is calf dressing, in which audience members physically harass calves until they're exhausted and surrender, at which point silly-looking women's clothes are forcefully put on them. You probably won't see either of these events at a real ranch.

Last but not least, the wild horse race involves teams of contestants who literally physically attack and intimidate a group of frightened horses until they can saddle and ride them. Again, not something you'd find happening on a real ranch.

How else are rodeo animals injured? Bucking horses and bulls break their legs. Skin injuries are common from bucking straps. Horses bite and kick other horses in crowded corrals. They also get serious abrasions from contact with trailers and chutes.

What happens to injured and therefore useless rodeo animals? Well, there are no prizes or fame for them. They're shipped unceremoniously to the slaughterhouse without medical treatment and usually in great pain, killed, and ground into pet food, or even people food.

Am I implying that ranchers more humane to animals than rodeo performers? Not exactly. Ranchers routinely brand and castrate without using anesthesia. The nervous system of a horse or cow is almost identical to that of a human's. You figure out how much it would hurt you to have a sizzling hot iron shoved into your epidermis. Or-if you're a man-what it would feel like to be castrated with nothing to dull the excruciating pain. No, ranches are not an improvement over rodeos. The best you can say for ranchers is that they're compelled to be slightly more considerate just because of the money they've invested in their stock, not because of any feelings of humaneness towards their animals.

So, Sexy Rexy, with your hand-tooled leather boots and expensive, sadistic spurs, wherever you are: I now know the truth about the Pike's Peak or Bust Rodeo, cowboys, and real life ranches. What's behind that phony romantic western myth is animal abuse, plain and simple.