Get Your Cowboy On at the Calgary Stampede
Held every July in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the Calgary
Stampede is a ten-day event, which bills itself as The Greatest Outdoor Show on
Earth, attracting over one million visitors and featuring the world's largest
rodeo, a parade, midway, stage shows, concerts, agricultural competitions,
chuckwagon racing and First Nations exhibitions. During Stampede, Calgary takes
on a party atmosphere. Residents put on
their cowboy hats and boots and attend events held across the city including
the ever popular pancake breakfasts and barbecues.
Twenty
of the world's highest rated competitors qualify to compete in each of the six
major events - saddlebronc, bareback, bull riding, tie-down roping, steer
wrestling and barrel racing followed up by the crowd favorite: wagon racing.
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Saddle Bronc - Based
on the necessity to break horses and make them safe to ride, the saddlebronc
event has similar rules to bull riding in that the rider comes out of a chute
riding the horse and attempts to hang on for 8 seconds while the horse tries to
buck the rider off. The cowboys and
horses both receive a score between 0 and 50 which are combined to achieve a
total score. On the first jump out of
the chute, the cowboy must “mark the horse” meaning he must have the heels of
his boots in contact with the horse above the point of his shoulders before the
horses front legs hit the ground. The
cowboy is disqualified if his free arm touches the horse during the 8 seconds;
he also gets points for spurring.
Bareback - Bareback, horseback riding without a saddle, is the most physically demanding rodeo event with a high injury rate. Using one arm, the cowboy must hold onto the rawhide handhold of a riggin (a leather pad cinched around the horse's girth). The rider will be disqualified for touching the animal or equipment with his free hand, or getting bucked off before eight seconds. The bareback rider strives to reach as far forward as he can with his feet rolling his spurs back up toward the riggin. At the same time, he must keep from being pulled away from the handhold. The higher and wilder the rider spurs, the higher his score. Bull Riding - Bull riding is the most dangerous rodeo sport and accounts for approximately 50% of all traumatic injuries to rodeo contestants not to mention injuries inflicted on the bullfighters who protect the contestants. It is thought that bull riding was born in 1869 in Deer Trail, Colorado when two groups of cowboys from neighboring ranches were having a “We are better cowboys than you” dispute and decided to solve it with a competition, which caught on giving birth to the rodeo. Today cowboys from all over the world can finally figure out, once and for all, who the best cowboys are. What a relief! The healthiest and strongest bulls are chosen for the competition and the cowboys are assigned to one via a random draw. A rope with a hand-hold braided into it is wrapped around the bull with a weighted cowbell hanging underneath. The rope is pulled snug around the bull’s hind quarters and is kept tight by the cowboys grip, once the cowboy lets go the rope falls free. Once out of the gates, the cowboy attempts to hang onto the bull for 8 seconds. This is not an easy task. The cowboy is only allowed to hang on with one hand (his riding hand) and if he touches the bull with his other hand or gets bucked off before his 8 seconds is up he gets disqualified. The ride is scored from 0-100 points (0-50 for the bull and 0-50 for the cowboy) usually by two judges: one for the bull and one for the cowboy. |
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