When I was in sixth grade I entered my first junior rodeo. It was held at my great uncle’s house. He roped calves, bulldogged and rode broncs when he was younger.
That’s one day I’ll never forget, because I was supposed to enter the bull riding. I had been told they were bringing calves for us kids to ride. When they unloaded them one calf jumped the fence, swam the pond and ran off in the woods. I was thinking little gentle calves to ride, these calves were so tall I couldn’t see over their backs. They were also really wild, so I followed my great uncle to the roping chute, that’s the closest I ever got to entering a rough stock event. I entered the roping events that day. I’ve been a calf roper ever since that first rodeo.
Back in the early 1990s, about the same time I was learning how to rope calves, the animal rights movement was gaining a lot of attention and becoming very powerful politically. Several agricultural entities tried to implement more humane practices when it came to handling and caring for livestock. Feedlots, slaughterhouses, salebarns all were forced to change how they handled livestock.
Calf roping had always been a sport that showcased the roper’s abilities, and the calf roping horse’s ability. The fastest time wins, but it requires a good cowboy and a good calf roping horse.
A good calf roping horse will run hard and then stop hard, jerking the calf down when it hits the end of the rope after the cowboy ropes it. After the calf is jerked down the calf roping horse backs up keeping constant pressure on the rope so the cowboy can throw the calf to the ground and tie its legs.
For many years most calf ropers would rope the calf and then place the slack in the rope so it jerked a calf down a certain way. Many calf ropers wanted the calf to hit the ground on its left shoulder. This gave the roper time to dismount the horse and get to the calf before it could run wild on the end of the rope. Other ropers wanted the calf not to be jerked off its feet, simply turn the calf around to the left or right when it hits the end of the rope.
In the early nineties the animal rights activist were able to get a “jerk down” rule put in place in certain states. California was the first state I remember that had a jerk down rule. Many other states soon followed. Many rodeo associations implemented a jerk down rule to get the animal rights organizations to back off. One association dedicated a full page of their magazine each month advertise how they were becoming more and more protective of the rodeo stock’s welfare.
Most of the time a jerk down resulted in a no time. Calf ropers have long argued the rule was hard to enforce fairly and consistently, especially since rodeo has no instant replay. Some rodeo associations place a fine on the cowboy or add time to the cowboy’s run if it is deemed to violate the jerk down rule. However, the worst penalty is a no time, this ensures the cowboy has zero chance of winning if a calf he ropes is jerked down.
In 2003 I drove to Mobile, Alabama to a rodeo. The stock contractor brought two dozen calves. The contestants were allowed to tie the calves before the rodeo and remove four from the herd. After we tied the calves we cut off the four that were so big we couldn’t flank them. One calf we left on the herd was crazy, it wound bawl and kick every time we tied it.
I drawed the crazy calf in the performance that night. I jerked it down really hard and the judge fined me a hundred dollars. This was in 2003 when fuel prices had tripled in just a few months. Needless to say, I was really upset over driving all the way from Oklahoma to Mobile, Alabama and being fined for jerking a calf down that shouldn’t have ever been in the draw in the first place. The association had a rule in place that if the stock contractor arrived at the rodeo with 20 animals in every timed event the stock contractor could charge all of the contestants more money. That was why we were only allowed to cut four calves from the herd, because it would cost the contractor an awful lot of money if he didn’t have twenty calf roping calves for the rodeo.
After almost forty years of jerk down rules I’ve came to realize a couple of things. The animal rights activists will never stop, and sad to say, but the other issue has become money.
Many rodeo associations are eager to fine contestants every chance they get in order to raise money for the association.
Many stock contractors want their livestock protected, which is understandable considering the cost of livestock today. Once again as the old saying goes, the snowball rolls downhill and the contestant ends up paying the freight.
James Lockhart lives near the Kiamichi mountains in southeast Oklahoma. He writes cowboy stories and fools with cows and horses.
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