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Steer Wrestling
Speed and strength are
the name of the game in steer wrestling. In fact, with a world record sitting
at 2.4 seconds, steer wrestling is the quickest event in rodeo.
The objective of the steer wrestler, who is also known as a "bulldogger," is to
use strength and technique to wrestle a steer to the ground as quickly as
possible.
That sounds simple enough.
Here's the catch: the steer generally weighs more than twice as much as the
cowboy and, at the time the two come together, they're both often traveling at
30 miles per hour. Speed and precision, the two most important ingredients in
steer wrestling, make bulldogging one of rodeo's most challenging events.
As with tie-down and team ropers, the bulldogger starts on horseback in a box.
A breakaway rope barrier is attached to the steer and stretched across the open
end of the box. The steer gets a head start that is determined by the size of
the arena. When the steer reaches the advantage point, the barrier is released
and the bulldogger takes off in pursuit. If the bulldogger breaks the barrier
before the steer reaches his head start, a 10-second penalty is assessed.
In addition to strength, two other skills critical to success in steer
wrestling are timing and balance.
When the cowboy reaches the steer, he slides down and off the right side of his
galloping horse, hooks his right arm around the steer's right horn, grasps the
left horn with his left hand and, using strength and leverage, slows the animal
and wrestles it to the ground. His work isn't complete until the steer is on
its side with all four feet pointing the same direction. That's still not all
there is to it.
To catch the sprinting steer, the cowboy uses a "hazer," who is another mounted
cowboy who gallops his horse along the right side of the steer and keeps it
from veering away from the bulldogger.
The efforts of the hazer can be nearly as important as those of the steer
wrestler. For that reason, and the fact that he sometimes supplies the
bulldogger with a horse, the hazer often receives a fourth of the payoff.
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