History of rodeo
History of rodeo tracks the lineage of modern Western rodeo.
Early history of rodeo in Mexico
The rodeo was originally a Mexican procedure that consisted in herding the cattle from the places where they grazed until they were led and concentrated in a specific point which was also called "rodeo" in order for the cattle barons to separate their own from others, count them, brand them and select them, as well as to accustom them to the presence of man, prevent them from becoming too wild and protecting them from rustlers.The first rodeo ordinance was passed and implemented by Viceroy Luís de Velasco on October 16, 1551, but only for the Toluca Valley and surrounding areas in Central Mexico. Faced with the rapid increase of cattle, the indigenous people who were being affected complained. Viceroy Velasco received the news that the crops of the natives of the towns of the Matlatzinco Valley had been affected by the cattle and ordered that no more animals be kept on the ranch than could be sustained on their own on the granted lands. In turn, he ordered that there be enough vaqueros to carry out periodic rodeos and prevent cattle from invading the crops. The ordinance stated:
"That the owners of the ranches be ordered and be forced to have, with every two thousand cows, one Spanish guard and four Black or Indian Vaqueros, two on horseback and the other two on foot, so that they can collect and round up the said cattle on the ranch one day in each week, under penalty of twenty gold pesos for each time they do not, and find themselves without the said people and guard."
The rodeo was a success because as time went on, the vaqueros, estancieros and cattle barons noticed that it made ranching and cattle management much easier. They could perform all the necessary work, like branding, on a large portion of the cattle without actually moving the cattle into a corral; it could all be done on site. They could also use the rodeo as a way to sort out the cattle belonging to other cattle barons, as there was no other way to know their owner. By the 1570s the rodeo was used not only to try and tame the cattle, but also to perform all necessary duties such as sorting, branding, curing, castration, and slaughter.
The second rodeo law was passed by Viceroy Martín Enríquez de Almanza for all cattle ranching regions in the country, on January 25, 1574:
"That in each cattle estancia, from the day of San Juan in June until the middle of November of each year, in each week, in the areas and places that by said justice they are commanded and appointed, they be forced to do a rodeo of the cattle and horses. And all the others from the other regional cattle estancias where it would be convenient to make such a rodeo, are forced to come out, and help do the rodeo, so that each one can take out the cattle that bears their brand and take it back to their estancia. As the said rodeo is occurring, by law, between the estancias, under penalty of doing the opposite: being Spanish or mestizo, ten pesos of common gold, applied according to Mesta ordinances; and being black, mulatto, or quadroon, they shall be given a hundred lashes".
The first description of a rodeo was written by Don Juan Suarez de Peralta in his veterinary medicine book Libro de Albeitería written between 1575 and 1580, where he explains to a European audience what a rodeo is and how they are done in the Chichimeca region of Central Mexico:
"... to take the cattle, they build false corrals towards the area they are fleeing and they gather many men on horseback and using this technique they capture them, and, as I have said few, because there are also tamed horses called corraliegos in great quantity; that there are many who have more than a thousand mares, and the ones who seem to have the least have five hundred, or two hundred, and that is nothing because there is so much cattle that there are men who have 150,000 cows, and having 20,000 is very little, and many are cimarronas and most are rodeo ones, that are so made to it, it is the only way to know how many there are. And these rodeos are done this way: that more than three hundred horsemen of all the cattle barons gather on a specified day, and that land they call Valles is very flat and depopulated of towns where they have to hunt the meek cattle, especially in the San Juan valley in the Chichimecas, who are untamed hostile Indians who have never been conquered, and they do a lot of damage both in killing people and in burning the houses, that over there they call Estancias, where the Vaqueros live and where they have their corrals to enclose some cattle to brand."
Rodeo stresses its western folk hero image and its being a genuinely American creation. But in fact it grew out of the practices of Spanish ranchers and their Mexican ranch hands, a mixture of cattle wrangling and bullfighting that dates back to the sixteenth-century conquistadors.
Bull riding originated with Mexican equestrian contests known as charreadas, wrestling the steer to the ground by riding up behind it, grabbing its tail, and twisting it to the ground. Bull wrestling was part of an ancient tradition throughout the ancient Mediterranean world, including Spain. The ancient Minoans of Crete practiced bull jumping, bull riding, and bull wrestling. Bull wrestling may have been one of the Olympic sporting events of the ancient Greeks.
The events spread throughout the Viceroyalty of New Spain and was found at fairgrounds, racetracks, fiestas, and festivals in nineteenth-century southwestern areas that now comprise the United States. However, unlike the roping, riding, and racing, this contest never attracted a following among Anglo cowboys or audiences. It is, however, a favorite event included in the charreada, the style of rodeo which originated in the Mexican state of Jalisco.
Early American rodeo
There would probably be no steer wrestling at all in American rodeo were it not for a black cowboy from Texas named Bill Pickett who devised his own unique method of bulldogging steers. He jumped from his horse to a steer's back, bit its upper lip, and threw it to the ground by grabbing its horns. He performed at local central Texas fairs and rodeos and was discovered by an agent, who signed him on a tour of the West with his brothers. He received sensational national publicity with his bulldogging exhibition at the 1904 Cheyenne Frontier Days. This brought him a contract with the famous 101 Ranch in Oklahoma and its traveling Wild West exhibitions, where he spent many years performing in the United States and abroad.Pickett attracted many imitators who appeared at rodeos and Wild West shows, and soon there were enough practitioners for promoters to stage contests. Photographers such as Walter S. Bowman and Ralph R. Doubleday captured images of rodeos and published postcards of the events.
The first woman bulldogger appeared in 1913, when the great champion trick and bronc rider and racer Tillie Baldwin exhibited the feat. However, women's bulldogging contests never materialized. Cowboys did take up the sport with enthusiasm but without the lip-biting, and when rodeo rules were codified, steer wrestling was among the standard contests. Two halls of fame recognize Pickett as the sole inventor of bulldogging, the only rodeo event which can be attributed to a single individual.
Rodeo itself evolved after the Texas Revolution and the U.S.-Mexican War when Anglo cowboys learned the skills, attire, vocabulary, and sports of the vaqueros. Ranch-versus-ranch contests gradually sprang up, as bronc riding, bull riding, and roping contests appeared at race tracks, fairgrounds, and festivals of all kinds. William F. Cody created the first major rodeo and the first Wild West show in North Platte, Nebraska, in 1882. Following this successful endeavor, Cody organized his touring Wild West show, leaving other entrepreneurs to create what became professional rodeo. Rodeos and Wild West shows enjoyed a parallel existence, employing many of the same stars, while capitalizing on the continuing allure of the mythic West. Women joined the Wild West and contest rodeo circuits in the 1890s and their participation grew as the activities spread geographically. Animal welfare groups began targeting rodeo from the earliest times, and have continued their efforts with varying degrees of success ever since.
The word rodeo was only occasionally used for American cowboy sports until the 1920s, and professional cowboys themselves did not officially adopt the term until 1945. Similarly, there was no attempt to standardize the events needed to make up such sporting contests until 1929. From the 1880s through the 1920s, frontier days, stampedes, and cowboy contests were the most popular names. Cheyenne Frontier Days, which began in 1897, remains the most significant annual community celebration even today. Until 1922, cowboys and cowgirls who won at Cheyenne were considered the world's champions. Until 1912, organization of these community celebrations fell to local citizen committees who selected the events, made the rules, chose officials, arranged for the stock, and handled all other aspects of the festival. Many of these early contests bore more resemblance to Buffalo Bill's Wild West than to contemporary rodeo. While today's Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association -sanctioned rodeos must include five events: calf roping, bareback and saddle bronc riding, bull riding, and steer wrestling, with the option to also hold steer roping and team roping, their Pre-World War I counterparts often offered only two of these contests. The day-long programs included diverse activities including Pony Express races, nightshirt races, and drunken rides. One even featured a football game. Almost all contests were billed as world's championships, causing confusion that endures to this day. Cowboys and cowgirls often did not know the exact events on offer until they arrived on site, and did not learn the rules of competition until they had paid their entry fees.
Before World War II, the most popular rodeo events included trick and fancy roping, trick and fancy riding, and racing. Trick and fancy roping contestants had to make figures and shapes with their lassos before releasing them to capture one or several persons or animals. These skills had to be exhibited on foot and on horseback. Fancy roping was the event most closely identified with the vaqueros, who invented it. In trick and fancy riding, athletes performed gymnastic feats on horseback while circling the arena at top speed. Athletes in these events were judged, much like those in contemporary gymnastics. The most popular races included Roman standing races wherein riders stood with one foot on the back of each of a pair of horses, and relays in which riders changed horses after each lap of the arena. Both were extremely dangerous, and sometimes fatal.
Another great difference between these colorful contests and their modern counterparts was that there were no chutes or gates, and no time limits. Rough stock were blindfolded and snubbed in the center of the arenas where the riders mounted. The animals were then set free. In the vast arenas, which usually included a racetrack, rides often lasted more than 10 minutes, and sometimes the contestants vanished from view of the audience.
During this era, women rode broncs and bulls and roped steers. They also competed in a variety of races, as well as trick and fancy roping and riding. In all of these contests, they often competed against men and won. Hispanics, blacks and Native Americans also participated in significant numbers. In some places, Native Americans were invited to set up camp on the grounds, perform dances and other activities for the audience, and participate in contests designated solely for them. Some rodeos did discriminate against one or more of these groups, but most were open to anyone who could pay the entry fee.
All this began to change in 1912, when a group of Calgary businessmen hired American roper Guy Weadick to manage, promote, and produce his first Stampede. Weadick selected the events, determined rules and eligibility, chose the officials, and invited well-known cowboys and cowgirls to take part. He hoped to pit the best Canadian hands against those of the US and Mexico, but Mexican participation was severely limited by the civil unrest in that country. Nonetheless, the Stampede was a huge success, and Weadick followed with the Winnipeg Stampede of 1913, and much less successful New York Stampede of 1916. Although Weadick's last production, the 1919 Calgary Stampede, was only a minor success, he led the way for a new era in which powerful producers, not local committees, would dominate rodeo and greatly expand its audience.
Rodeo enjoyed enormous popularity in New York, Chicago, Boston, and Philadelphia, as well as in London, Europe, Cuba, South America, and the Far East in the 1920s and 1930s. Today, none of those venues is viable. Despite numerous tours abroad before World War II, rodeo is really significant only in North America. While it does exist in Australia and New Zealand, top athletes from those countries come to America to seek their fortunes. Some Latin American countries have contests called rodeos but these have none of the events found in the North American version.
The rodeo was not originally a sporting event, but an integral part of cattle-ranching in areas of Spanish influence. The working rodeo was retained in parts of the US Southwest even after the US-Mexico War. In fact, it was important enough to merit legal status in California:
"An Act to Regulate Rodeos...Every owner of a stock farm shall be obliged to give, yearly, one general Rodeo, within the limits of his farm, from the first day of April until the thirty-first day of July, in the counties of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and San Diego; and in the remaining counties, from the first day of March until the thirty-first day of August...in order that parties interested may meet, for the purpose of separating their respective cattle."
One of these businesslike rodeos held in 1858, in old Los Angeles County is described by Harris Newmark: