Amateur rodeos attract varied crowd
By LARRY BINGHAM
The Portland Oregonian
Wednesday, September 16, 2009 10:48 AM PDT
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| Lacy Camara, 9, rides a calf during the Paulina Rodeo, Sept. 5, in Paulina, Ore. The Paulina Amateur Rodeo, which celebrated its 60th year Labor Day weekend, is among the last amateur rodeos. It’s one of the few places left where any man, woman or child — experienced or beginner — can walk up to the chutes, pay an entry fee and climb on the back of a horse, a sheep, a steer, a calf or a bull. |
PAULINA (AP) — In an isolated stretch of sagebrush and rimrock 91 miles east of Bend, a 21-year-old cowboy with big dreams climbs into a narrow chute and sits on the back of a squirming bronco, as cowboys have done in this part of central Oregon for decades.
The chute flies open. The horse, called Street Dancer, careens into the open arena, kicking up clouds of dust. It rears and bucks as the cowboy hangs on with one hand.
Then the ride’s over in a few seconds. The bronco jerks one way, the cowboy flies off in another. He lands on his face with a heavy thud as the crowd winces and groans.
What just happened out there?
“It was just a young horse,” Zeb McLean explains minutes later. “He ducked and dived on me and didn’t give me much of a chance. I broke the hell out of my nose; blacked my eye good, too. I got to quit landing on my face.”
Rodeo organizers say it’s getting harder to find cowboys like McLean who’ll risk injury to be a bareback rider. If the number is shrinking, the number of rodeos — a summer staple in the Northwest — is not, according to organizers at events big and small.
Want a fast-moving rodeo with nationally ranked professional cowboys? Oregon has plenty, like the ones in St. Paul and Pendleton. Prefer a small rodeo attached to the county fair? Oregon has its share of those, too. What the state doesn’t have much of anymore is the old-fashioned amateur kind.
The Paulina Amateur Rodeo, which celebrated its 60th year Labor Day weekend, is among the last.
It’s one of the few places left where any man, woman or child — experienced or beginner — can walk up to the chutes, pay an entry fee and climb on the back of a horse, a sheep, a steer, a calf or a bull.
Once a year in Paulina, anybody, as they say, can “cowboy up.”
Why didn’t Paulina ever go professional like so many other rodeos?
“We just kept it a family affair,” says Carl Weaver, a 70-year-old former Paulina rodeo board president who competes in the team roping event with his grandson. “We’ve got the mutton busting for the little kids and the barrel racing and calf riding for the little kids, and if we were to go into one of them affiliated jobbies, well, maybe we’re not the boss anymore. We want to be the ones to determine what goes on.”
In today’s rodeo world, where associations govern most events, the word amateur is slippery. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association has more than 6,000 cardholders nationwide and is the Major Leagues of rodeos. Some of its members rodeo for a living, and some chase their dreams only on weekends. To further blur the line, dozens of small regional associations use the word “professional” in their titles, too.
