Cave Creek Rodeo

This past Sunday, Rolande and I joined our friends Ken and Judy Zender for some rodeo in the nearby Town of Cave Creek. I did take a camera and was successful in getting some good shots of the action. Rodeo is my favourite choice for action photography. The action is almost continuous, presenting more good picture opportunities than any other sport I’ve photographed. Rodeos in the smaller communities, like Cave Creek allow you to get closer to the action where you can get better, close-in shots.

Here’s a picture from the calf roping event. The cowboy lassos the calf, bringing it to an abrupt halt. He then dismounts, flips the calf over onto its back then ties three of its legs together. The calf must remain restrained on the ground for 6 seconds in order for the cowboy’s time to count. Top professional calf ropers will rope and tie a calf in 7 seconds from the time the calf is released from the starting chute. This event requires great skill and good teamwork between the cowboy and his horse.

Three of the most popular and more dangerous events are bareback riding, saddle bronc riding and bull riding. These events require that the cowboy remain on board the horse or bull for 8 seconds for his ride to be complete. These are judged events, scored on the combined performance of the horse or bull and the cowboy.

Did I say these sports are risky? This cowboy’s ride was brief and he didn’t score. He emerged unhurt but likely a little shaken up. The bull was fine.

This next photograph shows a bareback rider putting on a show for the spectators behind.

To stay aboard the horse, a bareback rider uses a rigging made of leather resembling a suitcase handle on a strap, placed atop the horse’s withers and secured with a cinch. Bareback riding has been compared to riding a jackhammer with one hand. A bareback rider is judged on his spurring technique, the degree to which his toes remain turned out while he is spurring and his willingness to take whatever might come during his ride.

Saddle bronc riding is rodeo’s classic event. This event requires strength to be sure, but the event also demands style, grace and precise timing. Saddle bronc riding evolved from the task of breaking and training horses to work the cattle ranches of the Old West. 

Barrel racing is a rodeo event in which a horse and rider attempt to complete a cloverleaf pattern around preset barrels in the fastest time. It combines the horse’s athletic ability and the horsemanship skills of a rider in order to safely and successfully maneuver a horse in a pattern around the three barrels. The courses vary in length, so winning times vary as well. At Cave Creek, the winning time was 15.48 seconds.

I find that barrel racing is one of the better events to photograph. While lacking the rough and tumble of the bull, bareback and saddle bronc riding, it makes up for it in the speed and agility of the horses and the precision handling of the horse’s rider.

Steer wrestling is precisely what the name suggests. It entails chasing a fleeing steer on a horse at 30 mph (50 kph), dropping out of the saddle to grab the steer by the horns, then wrestling it to the ground. Steers can weigh 450-650 lbs. (200-295 kg), as compared to 180-300 lbs. (80-135 kg) for the cowboys.

These cowboys are the linebackers of rodeo, combining strength, agility and fearlessness to subdue a charging steer. It’s the fastest of the rodeo sports, so you need pay attention or risking missing a good photograph. At the Cave Creek Rodeo, the winning time was 4.4 seconds.

I include this final picture for my friend Dave Foreman, a former team roper. He’s left the sport and now pursues his athletic endeavours on the golf course.

Team roping  is a rodeo event that features a steer and two mounted riders. The first roper (the header) ropes the front of the steer, usually around the horns. Once the steer is caught, the header must use his rope and horse to turn the steer to the left. The second roper (the heeler) ropes the steer by its hind feet after the header has turned the steer. It’s a timed event and in the case of this year’s Cave Creek Rodeo, the winning time was 4.7 seconds.

The photographs included in today’s blog were all taken using a 200 mm telephoto lens, equipped with a 1.4x extender for greater magnification. Focal lengths varied from 125-280 mm, depending on the distance from the subject. Shutters speeds were consistently between 1/1000 sec and 1/1250 sec, achieved with an aperture of f/7.1 and ISO 400-600 on a brilliant, sunny day. I applied some considerable cropping to many of the images to zone in on the action and remove the distraction of the surrounding grandstands.