Brokeback Mountain: Our Community's Common Bond > Brokeback Mountain Open Forum

bull-riding and calf-roping

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injest:

--- Quote from: chowhound on June 07, 2007, 10:56:24 pm ---My assumptiom was that Ennis was calf-roping rather than bull-riding when he'd participated in a few rodeos prior to his meeting with Jack. I've never been to a rodeo, so I may be way off, but I'm assuming that there would be number of different games or challenges in an afternoon or evening's entertainment. For instance at the rodeo where Jack meets Lureen, she is taking part in some sort of horse riding test. Any rodeo experts out there who can comment?


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Traditional rodeo has several events....you have rough stock events and you have timed events.

Rough stock events are the ones where you ride bulls or horses. Bulls (of course) do not have saddles, you hold onto a bullrope. Horses can be either bareback using a band to hold onto or saddlebronc which do have a saddle.

Timed events involved trained horses. There is calf roping, team roping, steer wrestling, and barrel racing (that one is what Lureen is doing in the movie and only girls do it at traditional rodeos)

Bull riders have gotten a lot more prestige lately because of all the new show they are putting on these days....CBR and PBR...traditional rodeos are not as popular anymore...and you can hold a bull ridign event in a small colesium.

To compete in a timed event you need to have the money to take care of a competitive horse or the money to rent one...and if you rent one part of your winnings goes to the horse owner. To be a bull rider all you have to have is a bullrope

injest:
Calf ropers used to be more admired than they are now....(they are suffering from lack of press!  ;) ) Rough stock does require strength and skill but roping events require a lot of practice, skill and finesse. You have to be able to control your horse and rope a moving object at a full gallop. Rough stock all you have to do is hold on (at least that is the general opinion of the ropers) there has always been a bit of rivalry between the different events.

Front-Ranger:

--- Quote from: injest on March 18, 2008, 08:19:16 am ---Calf ropers used to be more admired than they are now....(they are suffering from lack of press!  ;) ) Rough stock does require strength and skill but roping events require a lot of practice, skill and finesse. You have to be able to control your horse and rope a moving object at a full gallop. Rough stock all you have to do is hold on (at least that is the general opinion of the ropers) there has always been a bit of rivalry between the different events.

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Thanks Jess! This is very valuable to know! I was amazed at the team roping event that I watched how well the ropers performed while everything was moving...them, their partner, and the target!! Roping looked to me somewhat like golf...so many variables to control but amazingly they did manage to hook that calf both front and rear about half the time...

Brown Eyes:
For what it's worth, here are some links to FAQ about bull riding rules, vocabulary, scoring, etc. From the PBR.  Of course, this doesn't answer any of the questions about calf-roping.  But, it's pretty interesting to read the details of some of these rules (of course these are PBR rules, but I think they've probably evolved out of old-school, traditional rules).

Basics
http://www.pbrnow.com/about/sportinfo/basics.cfm
Equipment
http://www.pbrnow.com/about/sportinfo/equipment.cfm
Vocabulary
http://www.pbrnow.com/about/sportinfo/dictionary.cfm

injest:

--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on March 18, 2008, 09:22:58 am ---Thanks Jess! This is very valuable to know! I was amazed at the team roping event that I watched how well the ropers performed while everything was moving...them, their partner, and the target!! Roping looked to me somewhat like golf...so many variables to control but amazingly they did manage to hook that calf both front and rear about half the time...


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team roping. They use steers which are much larger than the calves they use for the calf roping....did you notice the headgear the steers were wearing? One cowboy is the 'header'...his job is to rope the horns (not the neck) and TURN the steer around....when he does that the steers head goes down and he begins to 'hop' with his back legs giving the other cowboy the "Heeler" a chance to rope the back legs. He is supposed to get both legs but ONE is acceptable (they do incur a 5 second penalty)

the history of this event was that when a cow got too big for the calf roping (ie one horse and cowboy) then you do this if you need to doctor, brand, etc...

in this team the "heeler' is the most experienced and best roper of the two, but it does take a lotta skill

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