Guts and glory, bulls and barrel racing, spurs and scars are all part of rodeo, a sport of epic legends. Cowboys and cowgirls use brain and brawn to contend for prizes and placement, but more often than not, it is the prestige of honorable competition that spurs them on. College Rodeo covers the history of the sport on …
Bull riders are a breed of their own. In no other sport do they have to put their lives on the line and be outmatched 10 to 1 in size. The average bull rider weighs 150 lbs. while the average bull weighs 1500 to 1800 lbs. They have to pay an entry fee to compete against their best …
The Wild West in England (The Papers of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody)
Army scout, frontiersman, and hero of the American West, William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody was also a shrewd self-promoter, showman, and entrepreneur. In 1888 he published The Story of the Wild West, a collection of biographies of four well-known American frontier figures: Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, and himself. Cody contributed an abridged version of his 1879 …
Rodeos have been around in what is now North Dakota since the early cattle drives brought cattle and ranching to the Northern Plains and Badlands. The horse culture was there much earlier, as Native American tribes used horses for transportation and hunting. Simpler than modern events, early-day rodeos offered a Sunday recreational activity after six days of hard …
This up-close look at rodeo takes readers into the world of one of the few truly American sports, as balletic as it is brutal, as riveting as it is symbolic of a rapidly changing American West. Serpa’s extraordinary images are accompanied by her anecdotal and informative annotations, as well as a provocative essay by Larry McMurtry. 75 …
My Heroes Have All Been Cowboys is a book of anecdotal narrative and cowboy poetry. The stories and poems weave a theme of love for the land, its people, and especially the rodeo cowboys and ranch people the author has known. The connecting thread is the life of professional rodeo cowboy Dean Armstrong, the author’s husband …
Cowboy spurs are a pure form of American folk art. Like the cowboy himself, the way spurs developed was molded by their use and the environment of the range, along with a generous dose of individualism and pride. Cowboy Spurs and Their Makers tells for the first time the fascinating story of this western art and …
To celebrate this type of riding, and the lifestyle that goes with it, one must understand where it came from and why it has survived into modern times. Whether it’s the buzz of a rough-and-ready rodeo, or that peaceful feeling when riding in the countryside, or the thrill of competing on a real performance stock horse, there’s a …
“The Rodeo Road” offers twenty short stories that portray a rodeo cowboy’s career from kids’ rodeos through competition on the professional rodeo circuit. From fifteen years participation as a rodeo contestant the author brings to life the people and places that he knew while traveling the rodeo road. Although the names and places have been …
Rodeo people call their sport “more a way of life than a way to make a living.” Rodeo is, in fact, a rite that not only expresses a way of life but perpetuates it, reaffirming in a ritual contest between man and animal the values of American ranching society. Elizabeth Atwood Lawrence uses an interpretive approach to analyze …