Rock Your Western Wear at the Rodeo

If you own several pairs of cowboy boots and you like to dress in western wear, then chances are high that you've been to a rodeo or two- and if you haven't you need to. You may even have learned some rodeo skills yourself at some point in time, regardless of whether you grew up to work a ranch or not. For western apparel clad men and women of the West, the rodeo is more than a show of athletic prowess or a highly developed skill, it's a part of their cultural heritage. When you are watching the events of a rodeo you are seeing the skills that it takes to actually BE a cowboy, and not just dress like one. Early rodeos took place fairly informally with the cowboys and vaqueros of the Southwest states and Mexico testing their skills against one another in various competitions that required the skills needing as a cowboy. It wasn't until after the civil war and the cattle drives of the late 1860s that rodeos began to be more of an organized event. The first organized rodeo event took place in 1872 in Cheyenne, Wyoming- and the first formal rodeo, to include awards and prizes, took place in 1888 in Prescot, Arizona.

These events gave way to a more widely popular form of entertainment in the form of Wild West Shows and East Coast rodeos that were less of a competition and more a demonstration and presentation of the skills of featured individuals. Eastern audiences loved the western-styled entertainments- the cowboy boots and western wear costumes on figures like Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill Cody. Rodeos were held in Madison Square Garden, a tradition that carries through into present day. Today's rodeos come in a variety of shapes and sizes. You will find traditional rodeos held outdoors looking much closer to their earlier incarnations. You'll also find more modern rodeos taking place in indoor arenas that also happen to be televised events. The prize money today is certainly bigger than it was, and more people are entering the rodeo circuit as a career. There was a large surge in the 1970s and a new breed of competitors entered the arena. Surprisingly, some of those people came from urban communities who were drawn in by the athleticism and the culture, and were probably at least partially influenced the money awarded to those who excel.

Women have been involved in the rodeo from the very beginning as well. There have been several notable female riders, even though women ceased to be able to compete in rough stock events alongside men after two woman died (one in 1929 and one in 1933). Today women's barrel racing and roping events are common and popular, and they compete alongside men in team roping, including mixed-sex teams. Women continue to compete in rough stock events, however they are women's only events today.

The first rodeos began in the 18070's and became increasingly more popular with the general population. Rodeos spawned the beloved wild west shows that included western apparel costumes and cowboy boots on the likes of Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill Cody performing cowboy skills for the entertainment of the crowd- through to today in which the popularity is back on the competition and has become a popular sporting event. You won't just see the competitors in western wear at a rodeo either.