Rodeo

[SoCalGalcas]

We had a three day Rodeo at PetCo park this weekend. It didn’t look like very big crowds from the pictures I saw. However, there were several protesters outside the stadium. Cruelty to animals was their theme.
I was wondering how our horse women on here feel about the rodeo?
I know nothing about horses, have never had one, and the last couple of times I’ve been on rented horse back, the experience was less than fun!
Lyn

[Cudedog]

We had a three day Rodeo at PetCo park this weekend. It didn’t look like very big crowds from the pictures I saw. However, there were several protesters outside the stadium. Cruelty to animals was their theme.
I was wondering how our horse women on here feel about the rodeo?
I know nothing about horses, have never had one, and the last couple of times I’ve been on rented horse back, the experience was less than fun!
Lyn

Good question, Lyn.

For myself, I have always had mixed feelings about rodeos. I think that I attended one in my younger years, but that was it. I didn't care for how the animals were treated - from bucking stock (both horses and bulls) to reining, calf-roping, barrel racing - you name it.

While I certainly admire the time and training that goes into, say, a good barrel horse (a horse that does a timed race around barrels) or a good reining horse (or a hunter/jumper, dressage, etc.) I'm not sure that an animal should be trained for precision performance at all. I don't think this kind of training is in the animal's best interest. The trainer gets bucks, fame and ego-boosting, the competitor gets trophies, (sometimes) bucks, fame and ego-boosting. . . but, no matter what, all the horse gets is maybe some extra hay. (Yes, I'm simplifying here a bit).

Many/most of these horses end up with moderate to severe health problems at a relatively young age, due to repetitive strain injuries.

I think your average, not-in-the-show-ring, non-competitive trail-riding horse (and trail-riding human) are probably fine. Because walking and trotting down a trail (with maybe a canter thrown in now and again, just for fun), is pretty much a horse's natural way of going.

Show jumping, barrel racing, reining, roping, racing - all for competition, for bucks and accolades - not so much.

Will be interested to read the opinions of the other horse ladies on here.

Nice topic, Lyn.

Thanks.

Anne

[JudyJB]

I don't have any first-hand knowledge or experience with this, but I have always wondered about the injuries from horses such as the ones who do roping and things like barrel racing making such violent turns. Modern horses have such delicate legs, I wonder about how often they break them or damage knee or hip joints.

[BirdbyBird]

Different breeds of horses have been bred especially for certain types of work. Not all of them have the delicate feet and ankles of the thoroughbred. And as athletes, performance horses are only as good as their breeding, training and conditioning. As in the recent news reports about the deaths of racehorses, there is abuse out there. But there are also many experienced and caring trainers and riders. I think of many of the maneuvers that we see in the rodeo as representative of what working stock horses are still asked to do during their working lifetime...... Widen the question and ask are dogs being abused when asked to run agility courses or Obedience trials? PETA would like to ban all of the dog show events if they had their way. A lot to discuss here.....

[BarbaraRose]

I too have mixed feelings about rodeos. I don't like the straps that make the horses or bulls buck. I don't like the roping and tying of calves. I have never enjoyed watching rodeos. None of it looks fun for the animals. Barrel racing seems pretty intense but the horses seem to enjoy it but I don't know enough to have a real opinion on that.

My main concern is the comfort, enjoyment and safety of the animals. I know a lot of horses love to run, jump, etc. When I rode, the horses I was on seemed to love jumping and being ridden. Dressage isn't hard on the horses (altho I didn't enjoy it!), and jumping over small to moderate jumps isn't hard for them. When I see the big Gran Prix shows with the 6' high jumps, I worry about the horses. That is really risky and dangerous for both them and the riders. Most horses would never voluntarily jump 6 ft or higher.

Horse racing now days is whole 'nother thing! Way too many horses now are getting injured and put down. No horses should be getting injured in races. We got a race track in MN many years ago and my mom and I would go occasionally for a day. I can't remember any horse ever getting injured out there and having to be put down. Now out here in CA, the tracks here seem to have several every week on a consistent basis. I don't know if it is the tracks themselves or the way the horses are being bred, trained, drugged, etc that is causing that. And no one out here seems to care. Del Mar seems to be the worst but Santa Anita has also had a bad track record of deaths in recent years.

So those are my opinions. I just want the horses, etc to be healthy, happy, safe, and loved, and enjoy what they are doing.

[Bethers]

I've seen good and bad and waver in my feelings about this. So I just spent over an hour looking at facts and figures and discovering almost everything negative is from the same groups. Some facts show the actual percentages of problems as being quite low. The last rodeo I went to (a couple years ago) was a blast. And I honestly believe the animals were enjoying it, too. If they want to regulate it more, legitimately, I wouldn't fight that, but I think there is a place for rodeos. I'd rather see the organizations fighting things that there really can't be disagreement on, like dog fighting, for example. There's nothing good to come from that.

[OregonLuvr]

I too have mixed feelings on a rodeo. I have been to several over the years and I did enjoy them. I am not a fan of bull riding, or bronc riding, but the calf roping is a fact of a working ranch and takes alot of skill. Barrel racing is okay by me I have never seen any accidents and maybe I was just lucky but those gals love their horses. I love watching cutting horse classes at some of the horse shows. Those horses are amazing. I despise horse racing!!!! I dont like jumping either, have seen too many accidents. There are several breeds very suited to jumping but it is very scary to me. I love dressage, not alot of risk involved there I used to do alot trail riding with my neighbor and we always rode bareback and would often come across a log in the path and of course we always jumped over it. Sometimes I went over the jump with the horse and other times I went alone, and sometimes I didnt get to go at all ha ha But was young and bounced well then.
Rodeos are very popular here in Oregon and some of those bulls are very expensive. Also the broncos. Some ranches raise the bulls just for the rodeos. There is also big money in supplying the animals for the rodeo. There is BIG prize money in the bigger rodeos for all the events. So, I dont hate them, I just dont go very often. I would rather go to a good horse show

[Cudedog]

I would like to make a couple more comments on this thread. . . and then I will probably let it go.

I mean no disrespect to anyone, I just find this an interesting topic (that I have given quite a bit of thought to over the years), and have a bit more I would like to say.

". . . but the calf roping is a fact of a working ranch and takes a lot of skill."

". . .I think of many of the maneuvers that we see in the rodeo as representative of what working stock horses are still asked to do during their working lifetime..."

Well. . . Hrm.

One of my favorite YouTube channels (check it out!) is "Our Wyoming Life":

https://www.youtube.com/@OurWyomingLife

This is about a working ranch in north-east Wyoming. The Galloways run a cow-calf operation of about a hundred head - including cows, calves and bulls, on (if I remember correctly) about five-thousand acres. I have followed this channel for two or three years now (a couple other ranching channels as well), and a couple things that I (at first) found surprising, but can now clearly see the reasons for.

These things stand out in my mind:

The Galloways don't use horses to work their cattle. At all. Nor do they rope their calves (more on this later). They do have two older horses for their daughters to ride for fun - again, not to work their cattle.

They use ATV's (four-wheeler All Terrain Vehicles) to herd their cattle where they need the cattle to go. They also use their ATV's for "cutting" a particular animal out of their herd.

This stands to reason, and make economic sense - a fully adult, well-trained "cow horse" (I'm not talking about a young colt of three or four years old, but an experienced animal of maybe seven years and above) can run in the neighborhood of seven to ten thousand dollars (and prices can go up from there). A new ATV costs maybe twenty-five hundred to three thousand dollars (and some are more expensive than this, of course).

And, of course, a person needs to know how to ride this type of horse. . .

With care and experience, a person on an ATV can herd cattle just as well - or maybe better - than a person on a horse. Plus, a cattleman (or woman) with an ATV doesn't even need to know how to ride a horse. Using an ATV is just all-around easier - and probably safer - than doing most anything on horseback around cattle.

Calf roping on a ranch is also an activity (like working cattle with horses) that is rapidly receding into the past (if it hasn't mostly done so already). To rope a calf, one needs the aforementioned cow horse, a person able to ride that horse, and the rider needs to also be very experienced with a rope. A rare commodity, becoming rarer.

Calf roping is extremely stressful for the calf, the horse, and the rider. Also dangerous to the calf, with a great potential for injury to that calf.

Most ranchers prefer not to risk the health and well being of their livelihoods.

When a calf needs to be worked, say at branding/vaccination time, metal alleyways with squeeze chutes at the end are used (not horses, and not roping) to handle calves. The calves are driven one-at-a-time into these alleyways. At the end of the alleyway, there is a "squeeze" chute, where a lever is pulled, gently squeezing the calf between two metal panels, while at the same time a kind of stanchion closes around the calf's neck, just behind the head.

The calf is still standing, but totally and completely immobilized. The calf has not been roped around his neck and thrown suddenly to the ground as it reached the end of the rope, where it's legs were tied together so it couldn't move, although since it is still struggling, a helper to the roper might sit on the calf - often it's head - to try to keep it still.

In a squeeze, the calf is just standing there, not struggling, mostly calm, squeezed between these two panels.

While the calf is thus standing in the squeeze, branding, vaccination, tagging, worming, castration - just whatever needs to be done with the calf - is done, and done very quickly. The calf is then released to go on with it's day, showing little to no stress, seeming no worse for the experience.

The amount of stress to the animal, and the potential for injury - to the calves and also to the people handling them - is infinitely reduced by leaving horses and roping entirely out of the equation.

Neither horses, nor roping, are used by the Galloways in working with their cattle. Not even for the needed initial herding of the calves into the metal alleyway that leads to the squeeze chute at the end.

The Galloways do this on foot, calmly walking along behind the calves, gently tapping them on the rump with something that looks kind of like a giant baby rattle - and pretty much makes the same kind of noise. Calves, being calves, are unfamiliar with this device, and this noise, so their natural inclination is to move away from it, and from the people using it. And so they do, calmly. Into the alleyway, and on down to the squeeze.

I guess I would again like to touch on my earlier point. Rodeos - barrel racing, bull riding, bucking-horse riding, calf roping - just whatever it happens to be - is exciting and thrilling to look at, for sure.

However, rodeo is a business. Rodeo is put on for the benefit of the masses, who buy expensive tickets to sit in the stands to watch the animals. . . on parade. Rodeo has little or nothing to do with the kinds of ranching skills needed in today's world.

Rodeo might have a little - or, ok, I'll grant this: even a lot - to do with how things were done "in the old days". . . maybe fifty or a hundred years ago.

But today's rodeo is purely for entertainment, not much else. Because the "skills" demonstrated by the participants are no longer needed - or even much used (if at all) - in today's real world of ranching.

Anne

[Bethers]

I watched sheep being moved with use of ATVs. But they still had dogs who really kept things together. I talked to one of the guys on the ATVs and he said some of the sheep are spooked by the ATVs so they try to be mindful of that.

And just because something is modern doesn't make it better. Here's an article on another ranchers view on herding.

https://www.lazyt.com/journals/what-is- ... nvironment.

[BarbaraRose]

Beth, that was very interesting. I agree with their perspective.

[IrishIroamed]

Five stars to Tina being more polite and eloquent than what I would say. Keeping my mouth zipped and my typing fingers quiet, except for they fact that I support rodeos.

[SoCalGalcas]

Enjoyed reading all the comments. Thank you for responding. Cheryl, is it PETA you don’t like? I too do not care for them! COMPLETLY rediculus and demanding wanting everyone to follow what they demand.
If I substituted dogs for horses Tina, that’s a perfect example of what PETA demands. I have been to many dog agility shows. Nothing will convince me those dogs are not enjoying themselves. My shepherd mix did not like agility! It was quite obvious in the way she responded. She had other exercises she loved and she smiled when doing them.
When I used to go to “finding lost people” training that was so much fun. I was the lost person! One can really get to understand which dogs were enjoying themselves!
Lyn