Rodeo thread!

Let’s open a thread about Rodeo worldwide, particularly in the Americas. Let’s see how many varieties of Rodeo exist, what are the origins, who are the cowboys, the music, etc. Rodeo in Australia? Rodeo in the Patagonia? Anything!

The first modern horses were brought by the Spaniards to the Americas, and they also brought the first cattle (cows) and techniques of riding horses. Some people, particularly Jared Diamond, were particularly impressed by the traditional riding skills of the Spaniards. Let’s start with a proto-Rodeo tradition that existed in Spain since the Medieval age, or perhaps even earlier: the Jineta.

Watch this video, from the minute 2:40.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQkuJ-dobIo&feature=related

What an amazing display of horsemanship!

Ken Kesey wrote a fun little book about the first Pendleton Round-up. It was a romanticized version but based on the true event. The interesting thing about that first round up was that the top three men in the all around competition where a white man, a black man, and a native american. That’s a far cry from the western movies you used to see back in the day.

This is the Amazing American Rodeo’s game of ridding the bull

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmxtHv6WpR0&feature=fvwrel