Rodeo protects rough stock

Do you want a good job with benefits of great food, travel, new vistas and short working hours? Trade places with a bucking bull or horse in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

Rodeo rough stock, as the bucking animals are called, live a life of relative luxury. They spend off-season on beautiful pasture land far from traffic, crowding and stress. This allows them lots of exercise to develop muscles and stamina in the company of their own kind.

When they go to work, they are transported in large stock trailers with conditions controlled by regulations and inspections. Overcrowding these working animals has no advantage to the owner/stock contractor, who wants horses and bulls comfortable, safe and content. They'll perform better because they have a good attitude.

This year, Larry Davis, Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) Livestock Welfare Field Representative, will visit Sisters Rodeo. He travels rodeos across the nation to assure that animals are safe and well protected, arenas are clean of hazards, and feed and clean water readily available.

Every year for 33 years, Eric Sharpnack, DVM, has been Sisters' on-site veterinarian (a requirement in the PRCA), there to treat any injured animal.

"I've treated more queen's horses for minor injuries than any rodeo stock," he says, adding that in over three decades he has treated only three severe injuries at Sisters Rodeo.

On the job, the average bucking horse or bull works about five minutes a year in an arena.

Three years ago, Sisters Rodeo honored a bucking horse that was retiring at the age of 19. Roan Ranger was royalty in the West Coast bucking circuit, a horse that bucked at 19 like he did at four. When he was recognized after his last ride (a three-second flurry), many fans, men included, teared up as the horse was trotted around the arena while his story was told.

His was not an isolated case. Many horses and bulls buck into their late teens and early twenties. Frank Beard, retired stock contractor, explained, "He'll work as long as he likes his job." The grand old horse is now living on the Beard Ranch.

Stock contract companies value horses and bulls that really like to buck. Breeding for this natural tendency has become a science in rodeo just as it is in horse racing, jumping or eventing. Any animal that doesn't demonstrate this desire is culled from the rodeo world, with other life options still open.

Stock contractors will pay five figures for good bucking stock, and their animals can be worth six figures to their company. A reputation for good stock makes cowboys happy to see that stock company at rodeos where they compete. The better the buck, the higher the cowboy's points.

Would you risk not taking excellent care of this kind of investment?

In 2008, with 55,656 "exposures" in the arena, there were only 27 animal injuries in 148 PRCA rodeos and 55 slack sections. That is less than five hundredths of one percent. Not all of them were with stock animals, nor were they all calves or steers. These statistics demonstrate the true safety of animals in rodeo.

The West was settled by men and women wise to the variety of uses of horses and cattle. Bucking, roping and working as a team were part of this lifestyle, where cowboys and cowgirls bragged their way into competitions between each other and the animals in their care.

Rodeo became a sport of its own, and the respect for the animals involved was as natural as the lifestyle they propagated. Regulation dates back to 1947, when the PRCA established rules for proper care and treatment of rodeo animals.

Rodeo is not a cruel sport, but a sport in which animals develop a passion for competition as much as the human animals challenging them.

Bonnie Malone is a Sisters Rodeo Director