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Livestock Care
Exciting, good quality rodeos require two ingredients: top notch
competitors and fit, healthy animals. The basics of providing an
environment in which the animals can thrive is a combination of good
nutrition; health maintenance measures of de-worming (see photo at
the left), disease prevention, and attention to teeth and hooves;
making sure the animals have adequate area to rest and exercise; and
governing the frequency of use in competition to suit individual
animals. The key to an animal doing its best is feeling its best and
not being required to repeat the same task or action until it is
bored with the routine.
 For
proper maintenance, saddle horses are shod every six weeks.
The equipment that is worn by rodeo animals or is used in handling
them serves one of three purposes. Some equipment provides a seat or
a handhold for the rider. There are standards for this kind of
equipment to provide comfort for the animal. A bareback rigging, for
example, has a leather covered hair pad on the underside of the
rigging that extends a minimum of four inches from the back of the
rigging. The pads are loose to allow the rigging to be set on areas
that are not worn and for easy replacement. Depending upon the event,
other equipment is designed strictly for the protection of an animal;
i.e., skid boots for the back legs of calf roping horses that come to
a fast and sliding stop; bell boots on the front leg ankles of barrel
horses if the animals over reach with their back legs; a neck rope on
a calf roping horse that prevents the horse from turning its back end
to a roped calf, running off after the roper has dismounted, and
pulling the calf around the arena. The third kind of equipment
provides a measure of control or cues an animal. Included in this
kind of equipment are flank straps which are placed in front of the
back legs of bucking animals. The strap worn by bucking horses is a
length of leather that is fleece lined on the portion of strap that
touches the horse's flanks. It has a quick release buckle for easy
removal. People often wonder how the flank strap communicates with
the horse. A simple comparison would be how we use equipment when we
want to pleasure ride a horse. In that instance, we cue the animal
with reins on its neck telling it to go left or right and we pull
back gently on the bit in its mouth when we want the horse to stop.
For bucking action, we take the cueing equipment off the front of the
horse and place it where we are looking for the action. The strap is
loosely placed around the horse's flank when it is in the bucking
chute. A cowboy on the back side of the chute momentarily holds on to
one end of the strap as the horse leaves the chute. As the strap
snugs up to the horse, it may tell the animal to kick. You notice, we
say it may tell the animal to kick. It doesn't work on horses that
are not inclined to buck and doesn't always achieve the desired
reaction on bucking horses. The horse is a flight animal and without
a bit in its mouth exercising a degree of control, even a horse very
much inclined to buck is apt to simply run around the arena when it
is released from the chute into wide open space, unless something
diverts its attention. In the first few encounters, the unfamiliarity
of the strap gets the horse's attention and it tries to kick out of
the strap instead of running. Once an animal becomes conditioned to
the routine, the strap is essentially just part of the package that
tells the horse when it is time to buck. A similar fleece-covered
strap or soft cotton rope tied with a slip knot is placed on the
bucking bulls. To lay down and immobilize bulls, veterinarians
tighten a rope in the same area. Looking for a different reaction, a
rodeo animal handler applies a lighter touch. |
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