Introduction
Today's professional rodeo holds a distinct position in the world of modern sports having come directly from a working-lifestyle. Early rodeo began as the everyday chores of working ranches on the great plains of the American West. Although rodeo can trace it's beginnings to the United States and is mainly thought of as a distinctly American phenomenon, rodeo is quite prevalent in other countries with a significant ranching and livestock culture. Countries like Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and Australia host high quality rodeos with their own national style and flair.

Modern rodeos take place in a fenced, dirt surfaced area known as an arena. Arenas can be either indoor or outdoor. Remarkably there are no standard sizes for arenas, but all of them contain bucking chutes, and roping chutes (usually at opposite ends of the arena).

Organization
Rodeo is administered by modern day Rodeo Companies and is sanctioned by groups known as rodeo associations. Association memberships are usually made up of the competitors, stock contractors, judges, and organizational personnel (like announcers, secretaries, etc.). Rodeo organizations exist at the local, county, state, and national levels. This includes groups for children or 'little britches', high school and college-level competition.

Most rodeos are organized by Rodeo Producers, and funded by a city/town's local chamber of commerce, local service group or entity. Each is also sponsored by local and corporate business. These rodeos are normally sanctioned by an association and count toward year end awards and point standings within the association. This makes rodeo a real community event.

The Events
Rodeo is also unique in that it is a sport made up of several different events, each with their own style of competition, rules, and rewards. While there are many events that are specific to different regions of the U.S. and world, seven are recognized as standard events in most professional rodeo.
The seven main events are (in the standard order of competition):
       •  Bareback Riding
       •  Steer Wrestling
       •  Team Roping
       •  Saddle Bronc
       •  Tie-down Roping
       •  Barrel Racing
       •  Bull Riding


These seven events can be broken down into two categories, the roughstock or judged events (bareback, saddle bronc, and bull riding) and the timed events (steer wrestling, barrel racing, tie-down and team roping).

The Early Years (1700's – 1890's)
The beginnings of rodeo can be traced back to the ranches of the early 1700's, when the Spanish ruled the West. The Spanish cattlemen, known as vaqueros, would influence the American cowboy with their clothing, language, traditions and equipment which would in turn influence the modern sport of rodeo. Duties on these early ranches included roping, horse breaking, riding, herding, branding, and much more.

These activities remain the same today on modern ranches all-be-it with modern methods and equipment.

These ranch chores would evolve directly into the rodeo events of tie-down roping, team roping, and bronc riding with the other events expanding on the ideas of these early events.

Birth of Western America
The early 1800's saw the westward expansion of America's border with Manifest Destiny as the prevalent government policy. Americans from the East came into contact with Spanish, Mexican, Californio, and Texican cowboys and began to copy and adapt their styles and traditions of working their ranches.

Eventually the American cattle barons would begin to rival their earlier counterparts in new states like Texas, California, and the New Mexico Territories. Cattle from the West fed the massive population in the Eastern United States, and the cattle business boomed, especially after the Civil War.

Ranchers from the Southwest would organize long cattle drives, to bring cattle to the stockyards in towns like Kansas City, where trains would carry the cattle east. This was the golden age of the cowhand, who made their living on the many ranches and cattle trails such as the Chisum, Goodnight-Loving, and the Santa-Fe.

At the end of the long trails, these new American 'Cowboys' would often hold informal competitions amongst themselves and the various different outfits to see which group had the best riders, ropers and all-around best drovers. It would be from these competitions that modern rodeo would eventually be born. The 1st recorded event took place at this time.

Barbed Wire and the Wild West Show
All too soon, toward the end of the century, this open range era would come to an end with the expansion of the railroads and the introduction of barbed wire. There was no longer a need for long cattle drives, and range lands were being divided amongst the increasing population of homesteaders and settlers. Along with the decline of the open West, demand for the cowboy's labor began to dwindle. Many cowboys (and Native Americans as well), began to take jobs with a new American phenomenon, the Wild West Show.

Entrepreneurs like the legendary Buffalo Bill Cody began to organize these Wild West Shows. The shows were partly theater, and partly competition, with the objective of preserving the disappearing American frontier. Other shows like the 101 Ranch Wild West Show and Pawnee Bill's Wild West show also competed to present their version of the 'Wild West' to captive audiences. Much of the pageantry and showmanship of modern rodeo comes directly from these Wild West shows. Today rodeo competitors still call rodeos 'shows' and they participate in 'performances'.


Cowboy Competitions
At the same time, other cowboys were supplementing their income at their usual informal competitions, which were now being held in front of paying spectators. Small towns across the frontier would hold annual stock horse shows, known as 'rodeos', or 'gatherings'. Cowboys would often travel to these gatherings and put on what would be known then as 'Cowboy Competitions'.

Of these two types of shows only the cowboy competitions would survive. Eventually Wild West Shows began to die out due to high costs of mounting them and many producers begin strictly producing the less expensive cowboy competitions at local rodeos, or stock horse shows. The joining of competition with the gatherings would be the spark for what we now see as Rodeo, originally two different aspects of western life joined to become a unique sport.

Spectators would now pay to see the competitions and cowboys would pay to compete, with their money going into the prize pool. Many towns began to organize and promote their local rodeo, just as they do today. In frontier towns all over the west (like Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Prescott, Arizona) the rodeo became the most anticipated event of the year.

The Early Organizations (1890’s - 1950's)
With the disappearing lifestyle of the western frontier, the popularity of rodeo grew, and rodeos began to spread all across the country. Cowboys who had been facing grim prospects could now travel and make a living by rodeo alone.

This was the birth of the professional rodeo competitor. New and organized rules were needed to protect the safety of the cowboys and animals, and to standardize the events.

Many of the major rodeo committees from larger rodeos came together in 1929 to cement uniform rules of competition for the emerging sport of rodeo. The new organization was dubbed the Rodeo Association of America (RAA). It now became possible to document and determine champions in each event.

Turtles Strike Back
In 1936 a hallmark moment happened in the history of rodeo. A group of roughly 60 cowboys at the Boston Garden Rodeo, became angry over promoter W.T. Johnson's refusal to advertise the rodeo and to add their entry fees to the prize money. They decided to stage a walk-out and refused to compete. Johnson tried to find replacements without success and finally conceded.

With their demands met and a new found sense of worth, the cowboys formed the Cowboy Turtles Association. They called themselves 'turtles' because, as the story goes, they were slow to organize but finally stuck their necks out. The Cowboy Turtles changed their name in 1945 to the Rodeo Cowboys Association and the modern sport of rodeo was born. Many early cowboys such as Fritz Truan, were also boxers, which is how the rodeo buckle became the preferred trophy of rodeo events.

The Modern Era (1960’s - Now)
In the modern era, rodeo has continued to grow from it's roots as a working ranch competition to a huge national sport. With the continued success, rodeo has seen growth in the number of associations at regional and state levels.

Rodeo has also established itself at the high school and college level. There is even an association for younger children known as the National Little Britches Rodeo Association.

The business of rodeo is now as legitimate as any other national sport, and Professional Rodeo has achieved a status on par with the NFL or NBA. Rodeo not only offers a chance to compete, it also offers a way of life that the other less historied sports can't.

Rodeos Lasting Traditions
There is no doubt that rodeo will continue through the 21st century. Whether we see continued growth or leveling off remains up to us, our ability to change while remaining true to the spirit of rodeo will be a challenging obstacle to face. As we move further away from the agrarian/livestock culture that dominated our early history, the importance of rodeo will undoubtedly increase. Despite repeated attempts to destroy rodeo from severely misguided groups, rodeo will continue on where there remains a love of animals, competition, excitement, and the western experience. The individual nature of rodeo competition which offers a chance to rely on ones own ability to succeed is something that is grossly lacking in our modern culture.

Our duty as rodeo fans and participants is to learn all we can about the valuable history of our rodeo traditions in order to better defend it from those who wish to see it gone. It has been said, if you don't know where you come from you can't know where you're going.

Where am I going? To a Rodeo!

Facts
       •  Bull riding was voted the most dangerous sport on the North American Continent by Sports writers            of America
       •  About 60 percent of today's rodeo cowboys attend college, and most hold degrees. Many attend            school on rodeo scholarships and participated in intercollegiate competition
       •  Rodeo is the third biggest sport in terms of tickets sold
       •  Last year more than 46 million people bought a professional rodeo ticket

Source: www.rodeo.about.com