The Last Chance Stampede: Helena Rodeo

Last night we went to see the rodeo, something I have wanted to do for many many years.  The event started with small children riding sheep - or ought I say falling off sheep.  The children were as young as four, and only had a rope to hang on to, the sheep were not very happy to be ridden, so the inevitable result was the children tumbling off and the sheep running around the ring at full speed to be herded back to their pens by the very skilled cowboy overseers.  Although I was outraged - and I am not sure who for, the children or the sheep, it was actually pretty funny.

The event continued along the same lines, almost every competition involved making a beast buck as much as possible - generally bulls and horses, and the cowboys staying on for at least eight seconds, and winning points for style.  It was of course more complicated than that really, and I never fully grasped the intricacies of the scoring system.  It was very entertaining, very tense (each time man or beast got up from the ground alive I was relieved), and the skill involved was tremendous.  There were also some comic moments although not created by the truly terrible clown who talked through the whole show. 

Eight seconds, is such a long time, when watching a beast trying to throw his rider, and most of the cowboys (and this was a rodeo with top cowboys in it) came off before that time was up.  The bull, steer, or horse, can easily fit in 15 or 20 big bucks in that time, and it was a miracle that any of them stayed on for longer than the second buck.  When the bulls threw their riders, the riders had to run for their lives and climb out of the pen, for often the bull would turn to charge or attack them - I have never seen a man crawl so fast as one unfortunate who had lovely silver tassells on his chaps which shone with each movement.

In one of the slightly more imaginative competitions the cowboy had to ride in after a calf, lassoo him, leap off his horse throw the calf to the ground and tie up three of his feet, immobilising him.  This too was achieved for the winning cowboys in eight seconds - never has eight seconds seemed such a short period of time!  For one cowboy it took longer because he kept picking up the calf to throw him onto his back and the calf kept resisting so that the calf was thrown at least four or five times.  The calves looked very small and defenceless in this competition, but each one probably weighed twice as much as a men, if not more.


Another competition involved riding in on a horse, jumping off onto a young bull and wrestling him to the ground; skillful, impressive, exciting to watch, but I did have foolish sensibilities and some qualms about it! 

On the whole, I felt that it was a refreshing antidote to the foolish world we live in, filled with health and safety, risk assessments, and civilised concerns.  Humans, are, whether we like it or not, attracted to the dangerous, the slightly barbaric, and the bloody, and to deny that is ridiculous.  The rodeo seemed like a last bastion in the western world, and for that reason I was in favour.  The animals although discomforted and perhaps enraged and scared, were only in that position for a minute or two at most, and the whole show was conducted very professionally.  I am full of admiration for the cowboys, who are not only skilled, but either very brave or foolish - there is no way on earth that I would have got anywhere near some of those antagonised bulls, let alone got on one, and to do that time and time again, knowing full well the consequences must be admired.  I know that even if I wanted to, my knees would shake, my stomach would contract and I would be so scared I would be physically unable to make myself.



Me and Russ, an Arrington family friend - in his best for the day!