This work celebrates a great national pastime and tradition. Taking the reader ""behind the chutes"", Wayne Wooden and Gavin Ehringer reveal the essential character of rodeo culture today and show why it retains such a strong hold on the American imagination. As the authors detail, contemporary rodeo has evolved into a much publicised big-time phenomenon even as it strives to stay close to its fundamental cowboy roots. The Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) now sanctions 750 to 800 annual rodeos, worth more than 22 million dollars in prize money, attended by nearly 20 million spectators, and watched by millions more on ESPN and TNN. The National Finals Rodeo (NFR) alone offers more than two million dollars in prize money and is attended by 170,000 spectators in Las Vegas every December. Filled with telling anecdotes and insightful observations, the book highlights rodeo's glamour and glory, hazards and hardships, while clarifying its many dimensions as sport, profession, business, community event, family tradition, and pop cultural icon. Bareback and bull riders, calf ropers and steer wrestlers, barrel racers and saddle bronc busters, bullfighters and arena clowns, stock breeders and local organisers, judges and journalists, the famous and aspiring, winners and losers - all are given their due in a work that reflects the enormous allure and demands of rodeo life. Based on research and interviews conducted at the National Finals, as well as at rodeos large and small in San Francisco, Denver, Houston, Cheyenne, Calgary, Dodge City, Pendleton, and Prescott, among many others, ""Rodeo in America"" provides a guide for aficionados and novices alike.

"Barry" is a seventeen-year-old single white male. He has blond hair and blue eyes, weighs 150 pounds, and is five feet eleven inches tall. He was arrested in California at age sixteen for assault and robbery. Because he was underage he was initially segregated in a one-man cell while in county jail. Then, upon admission to a state prison recep­ tion and classification facility, he was housed in a special dormitory for young, inexperienced inmates who would be at risk within the general population. Upon completion of his screening Barry''s counselor recommended that he be sent to a penal institution reserved for the younger, more violence-prone, and hard­ core inmates. Barry said that he felt he would have "prob­ lems" at the recommended facility, but his counselor replied, "You won''t have any problems." Once he arrived, Barry was double-celled with a nineteen-year-old inmate who beat and anally raped him during his first night in the admission unit. Barry''s cellmate continued to assault him sexually during the two weeks they were housed together.

This work celebrates a great national pastime and tradition. Taking the reader ""behind the chutes"", Wayne Wooden and Gavin Ehringer reveal the essential character of rodeo culture today and show why it retains such a strong hold on the American imagination. As the authors detail, contemporary rodeo has evolved into a much publicised big-time phenomenon even as it strives to stay close to its fundamental cowboy roots. The Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) now sanctions 750 to 800 annual rodeos, worth more than 22 million dollars in prize money, attended by nearly 20 million spectators, and watched by millions more on ESPN and TNN. The National Finals Rodeo (NFR) alone offers more than two million dollars in prize money and is attended by 170,000 spectators in Las Vegas every December. Filled with telling anecdotes and insightful observations, the book highlights rodeo's glamour and glory, hazards and hardships, while clarifying its many dimensions as sport, profession, business, community event, family tradition, and pop cultural icon. Bareback and bull riders, calf ropers and steer wrestlers, barrel racers and saddle bronc busters, bullfighters and arena clowns, stock breeders and local organisers, judges and journalists, the famous and aspiring, winners and losers - all are given their due in a work that reflects the enormous allure and demands of rodeo life. Based on research and interviews conducted at the National Finals, as well as at rodeos large and small in San Francisco, Denver, Houston, Cheyenne, Calgary, Dodge City, Pendleton, and Prescott, among many others, ""Rodeo in America"" provides a guide for aficionados and novices alike.

"Barry" is a seventeen-year-old single white male. He has blond hair and blue eyes, weighs 150 pounds, and is five feet eleven inches tall. He was arrested in California at age sixteen for assault and robbery. Because he was underage he was initially segregated in a one-man cell while in county jail. Then, upon admission to a state prison recep­ tion and classification facility, he was housed in a special dormitory for young, inexperienced inmates who would be at risk within the general population. Upon completion of his screening Barry''s counselor recommended that he be sent to a penal institution reserved for the younger, more violence-prone, and hard­ core inmates. Barry said that he felt he would have "prob­ lems" at the recommended facility, but his counselor replied, "You won''t have any problems." Once he arrived, Barry was double-celled with a nineteen-year-old inmate who beat and anally raped him during his first night in the admission unit. Barry''s cellmate continued to assault him sexually during the two weeks they were housed together.