Rodeo is a traditional folk North American sport with influences from the history of Mexican vaqueros (cowboys) and American cowboys. Rodeo events include the rough stock events bull riding, bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, the timed events steer wrestling, team roping, calf roping, the rarely seen steer roping, and women's barrel racing, breakaway roping, goat roping and pole bending. The participants include cowboys, cowgirls and also rodeo clowns or bull fighterss. See also gymkhana and polo.
The oldest and largest sanctioning body of professional rodeo is the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) which sanctions around 700 rodeos annually. The Professional Bull Riders (PBR) is a recent organization dedicated to Bull Riding and puts on a number of events. There are also high school and college rodeos, amateur rodeos, and rodeos for women.
There are numerous rodeos held throughout the United States and Canada. Among the more prominent are the Calgary Stampede; Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming; the National Western Stock Show in Denver and the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in Las Vegas, Nevada. The NFR is held each December at the Thomas and Mack Center and features the top 15 (in terms of earnings) competitors from each of the events. In 2003, it is estimated that attandance at the 10 days of the National Finals Rodeo will top more than 170,000 with another 9 million people watching the rodeo on television.
Rodeo first appeared as an exhibition Olympic sport at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Native Americans are active in rodeo and have their own associations, see Indian rodeo
Here is a list of notable rodeos worldwide:
- Calgary Stampede and Exhibition in Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in Houston, Texas, United States
The word Rodeo is also used as a euphemism for a brothel.
Rodeo is also a ballet written by Aaron Copland.
