Women’s Rodeo in America – Ein Film von Walter Tauber

00:34  
It was the quest for a better life that prompted 19th century pioneers to set off for the limitless expanses of the American West. The mass exodus went down in history as a God-given opportunity to brave immense hardship and create a new society on the frontiers of civilization. The pioneers had visions of unlimited land, success, and freedom. They were fleeing the penury and the constrictions of the overcrowded cities on the East Coast. Whole families joined in the great trek crossing the entire continent.

01:11
During the long journey, fear of surprise attacks, illness, and death were constantly in attendance. Those who survived faced a life of deprivation. The wilderness had many hazards in store for them. 

01:30
In the new world, caught up in by the dreams of their men-folk,  the women still had to cope with cooking, washing, and having children but also had to develop new skills: Riding, hunting and shooting 
The myth of the Wild West lives on. Today, the traditional hard work on the ranch is glorified in arenas all over the West – by men and women alike 

02:09     
Rodeo is the ultimate test of horsemanship. At these contests originally imported by Mexican cattle traders the Wild West rides again.

02:57
No prize money this time for Leigh Ann Billingsley. She and her mare Shawnee have overturned one of the obstacles. This competition is called Barrel Racing and it tests the speed and agility of the horses to the utmost.

03:20  
Leigh Ann can look back on a long tradition. Three years after the first-ever commercial rodeo in 1885 the first women took part in a Wild West show. Since then hundreds of women have tried their luck as professional cowgirls. 

03:37
Rodeo doesn’t only involve riding. Travel is just as much a part of it. The summer season, just a few weeks around the national holiday at the 14th of July, is known as “cowboy Christmas”. Countless rodeo events allover the West attract the riders with their prize money.  For Shawnee getting in and out of the trailer is all part of the routine.

03:59
Leigh Ann’s husband Eric is nearly always with her and the same goes for her little daughter Kaylee Shay. Rodeo is a family affair. More than 6,000 men and 2,000 women are in professional rodeao, traveling around in their campers.

04:40
Rodeo contestants lead a nomadic life. They spend most of their time on the road, in their campers, clocking up as much as 100,000 miles in a year. They hardly ever get to see their real homes. Leigh Ann lives in Phoenix, Arizona. 

05:11  O-Ton Leigh Ann
The reason I became a rodeo contestant or a Cowgirl is I grew up around it. My father weas a rodeo clown, a bullfighter, my mother used to run barrels and secretary the rodeos, and my dad’s mom and his dad used to rodeo back then, so it was kind of in the blood. When I grew up around rodeos, I just decided I wanted to do it as well, and I started competing at the age of 10 in junior rodeos and just made my way up through high-school and college rodeos and amateur rodeos and up to the professionals.

05:43   
In Arizona, as in all the states of the American West, keeping horses is an integral part of many people’s lives. Eric is a blacksmith. Alongside Shawnee, all the horses in the neighborhood come to him to be shod. That’s how he and Leigh Ann finance their passion for rodeo. 

06:03
Eric is a rodeo contestant himself. He rides saddle broncs, wild mustangs like the ones the original cowboys lassoed on the prairie or bought from the native Americans. Married couples frequently share the enthusiasm for rodeo. 

06:40   O-Ton Leigh Ann  

Everyone who competes in rodeo is part of a family. When I was young and rodeoed by myself all over the country to different areas, I was never scared as long as I was at a rodeo or anything, to be travelling by myself, because I always knew there would be somebody there that I would know and just I always felt safe.

07:06 
One day, maybe Kaylee Shay will belong to the fourth generation of rodeo riders in this family.

07:26
A family reunion at Leigh Ann’s home is something special. The stories these people have to tell are a potted history of rodeo itself. 

07:35 
Father Chuck Henson was a rodeo clown and bullfighter, mother Nancy from Texas specialized in barrel racing. Back in the 1930s, grandma Margie Greenough, now 94, was a really big rodeo crowd-puller.

07:53    OT Chuck Henson 
Sometimes what used to scare me the most is I’d let somebody get hurt, that used to bother me quite a bit. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get a bull off a cowboy or something like that. I never did think about it at the time, you don’t have time to think about it.

08:13 
The rodeo clown is more than just a comic turn in the arena. He has an important job to do. Leigh Ann’s father spent decades capering around the powerful bulls to lure them away from cowboys who had jumped off or been thrown to the ground. A dangerous assignment.

08:51 
Women were a big rodeo attraction from the outset. Like Margie Greenough and her sister Alice they rode wild steers and mustangs. Originally, women competed with men in all disciplines. Today, at the 700 rodeos organized by the Professional Cowboy Association, participation is restricted for cowgirls to barrel racing. Only at 20 special women’s rodeos they can compete right across the board. 
In comparison, Margie and Alice were much more liberated. At the big professional rodeos in the thirties they matched their skills with the men on equal terms. An astonishing achievement. In athletics, women only gained respect in the 1970s. 

09:36    OT Margie Greenough  
Round the ranch there dad would go to the reservation, buy up a whole herd of wild horses, bring them home, like for 5 of us kids, this one for you this for you, you had to break them first, started handling, then you started bareback riding them, finally we’d saddle bronc them kind o the way you went down the line of learning, and our dad was strict, if it looked liked you were afraid of one he’d come over, well that thing won’t hurt you.

10:23  
Calf roping is the competition with the longest tradition, next to bronc riding,. For Leigh Ann it’s a sport, for cattle breeders it’s part of the job. Today, 85 percent of the rodeo cowgirls still come from the cattle-raising states in the West.

10:52  OT Leigh-Anne / Voice Over
Basically the training is learning how to ride, ride well, and learning how to rope. If you’re to become a roper or a rough stock rider, it’s just something you need to practice as well as any kind of sport. You know, you just learn the basic skills and then practice enough until you get’em down.

11:10   
Team roping is for twosomes. One throws the lasso over the calf’s head while the other tries to rope its hind legs. 

11:24    
After two days at home, Leigh Ann and Eric are back on the road again. The next professional rodeo is in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a fourteen-hour drive. For rodeo contestants life is tough and hectic and (however hard they try)
only a few cowgirls actually earn enough to live on.  

12:25  
In Santa Fe the festivities are in full swing. For the participants this event is a new chance to cash in on their skill against keen competition. For all the others the parade is an entertaining overture to the fin of the rodeo event itself.

13:01     OT Leigh Ann  
Financially you don’t make money even if you win just about every time. The cost of gas and diesel nowadays is just so it’s hard to come out ahead. Certain times, certain trips I’ll break even or get a little ahead. But by the end of the year you’re usually in the red, you know, usually in the hole.

13:19
Marlene McRae is a barrel racer. Wherever she goes, she sees familiar faces. Life’s like that in the rodeo business, it’s one big family. The Women’s Professional Rodeo Association is the oldest sports club for women in the United States and the only one run exclusively by women. 

13:46 
Each of the three barrels has to be exactly in place. Like all the events organized by the Cowboy Association the “Rodeo da Santa Fe” only has one contest women are allowed to take part in, the 17-second barrel race.

14:15   
Saddle practice is always a dry run. Bronc riders like Eric only get to see the horse, they end up with, at the venue itself. It is a matter of pot luck. The wilder the bronc, the more points you can score – and the more knocks you’re likely to take. One thing’s for sure: it’s best to be well prepared for this hazardous job.  

14:41
Leigh-Anne has a few more hours to put in before the horses are ready for the evening contest. In barrel racing the horse itself is the clinching factor. Training, talent, and a will to win are all equally essential. 

14:59
Marlene attaches great importance to getting her horse prepared. Stretching exercises ensure that the muscles are supple enough. The black magnets attached to the blanket are supposed to have a therapeutic effect.                                                        (14:53)

15:16  OT Marlene McRae  
Basic horsemanship is very important so that your horse understands, so you can communicate with your horse. You have to know what you want your horse to do and how to make him do it, and again that’s in use of your hands, your legs and your voice.

15:30     
Tension mounts as the riders make their way to the start. 

15:43
For the contestants, starting money for one single rodeo can total as much as 700 dollars. And they have to work really hard just to break even. 

15:55   
The juniors are the first to go into the arena... 

16:23
Then come the bull riders. They have to cling to their powerful adversary for eight seconds, until the siren sounds

16:32
The clowns lure the raging bull away from the fallen rider. 

16:48  
A rope tied around the animal’s haunches ensures that it bucks instead of just running away. 

16:59
Leigh Ann is waiting for Eric’s turn. 

17:13     
It’s just not his day. No prize money for Eric. 

17:19    
After the signal, the bull riders have to jump off themselves, whereas the bronc riders are helped off by the assistants. 
 
17:48     
Leigh Ann and Shawnee do the best they can. Only about 50 women earn a decent living from barrel racing. Leigh Ann is not in that league yet.

18:09
Two million dollars prize money attract the cowgirls to the rodeo events. If they’re good they can earn an average of 40,000 dollars a year. The best of them tot up 200,000 dollars or more. 

18:34     
One of the very best is former world champion Marlene McRae. In the course of seven years she earned a million dollars with one single horse. 

18:54
Marlene takes part in abou 110 rodeos a year. Ten times already she has made it to the National Finals in Las Vegas, which are only held for the fifteen best cowgirls qualify for.

19:12    
Like Leigh Ann, Marlene spends “cowboy Christmas” on the road. Husband Doug keeps her company on the endless trek from one rodeo to another. 

19:52    
Between the contests Marlene puts her horses through their paces.

20:01    OT Marlene McRae 
You want a horse that stands between 14-3 hands to 15-1 hands. So he can run quick and turn fast. And a horse that has proper confirmation is one that has a nice thin neck, a long neck, and a lot of substance and width between his front legs and back legs, so he has good lateral capabilities.

20:18   OT Marlene McRae 

We try to give our horses a wide education at the beginning of their life, ehm, making sure that they have a lot of options. So that in case they don’t make a good barrel horse we have started them on pole-bending, which is another speed event, we have roped on them, we have ranched on them, and trail rode, so that if they don’t make that barrel horse they have another place in someone’s barn to do another event.

20:50     
Doug is a designer. Marlene helps him select the pictures for her new company catalogue. 

21:03
“World Champion Designs” is the name of the mail order firm for riding gear that they operate from the ranch. They sell everything that horses and riders could possibly need. 

21:16    OT Marlene McRae 
The proper tratment of our horses is a large variety, from the proper equipment , proper saddles, proper bits. Good nutrition, good exercise programmes, great veterinarians, and we even go as far as using magnetic therapy, acupuncture, which is kind of new in the industry, but it’s found itself to be very valuable. We just do everything we can to make them comfortable and want to work 100 per cent.

21:42     
Just as many women as men joined the great trecks to the West in the 19th century Instead of being fenced in at home, they experienced the wonders of an untamed natural environment where anything seemed to be possible. Like Marlene, they got a new elevated, horseback perspective of the world. The unaccustomed challenges molded them into strong, self-confident personalities. It is no coincidence that the West was the first part of the country where women obtained the right to vote.

22:13
On the ranch Doug is just as happy to play cowboy himself. Here, roping is not a show, it serves a purpose. The calves have to singled out from the herd and branded. 

22:26  
Being world champion and company owner doesn’t stop Marlene from joining in the work to be done on the ranch. The branding mark identifies the owner and is designed to deter cattle thieves.

23:10    
In the house bar the stools are topped by saddles from Marlene’s collection of awards. The cowboys come to Marlene and Doug’s home to relax. The ranch is miles away from the nearest saloon.

24:00
Leigh Ann has another long journey behind her. It has taken her to Greeley, Colorado, a town founded by pioneers. 
24:14
In Greeley the Women’s Professional Association has a day on which the cowgirls can compete in all disciplines.

24:26   
The “Greeley Independence Stampede” lasts two weeks and is one of the biggest rodeo meetings in the West. 3,500 people are involved in organizing it and the stadium was built specially for the event.

24:44  
Waggon races, show riding, and clowns attract a knowledgeable and demanding audience.

24:59  
58-year-old Jan Youren is a bronc-riding veteran. Her ranch in Idaho keeps her comfortably off, she comes here for fun, not to earn money. Several of her 19 children have taken up rodeo and she hopes that her eight grandchildren will also keep up the tradition. Jan is one of a small but tenacious minority that still indulge in dangerous rides on wild animals – there are just under a dozen such women here in Greeley.  

25:46
It’s not Jan’s lucky day.
 
25:52  OT Jan 
I’ve never taken any drugs, but I’m absolutely sure there is no drug in wthe world that gives you the high that I get from riding a bareback horse, and I don’t have to have withdrawl either, and it doesn’t… oh, it costs a little, but I don’t think it costs as much as drugs do.

26:30   
Fun and excitement are still the major incentives for the cowgirls though prize money is getting higher all the time,. The horses sense the nervous tension and enter into the spirit of the thing.

26:48  OT Marlene McRae 
They feel the adrenalin that’s rushing around the arena, and coming out of your body. You know, a horse is very sensitive to our moods and our feelings, and he can feel what I feel. I’m a little bit nervous, he’s going to feel it and know it’s time to compete.

27:31   
The competitive spirit makes these women move around from one rodeo to the next, always in search of new challenges and new success. 

27:46  OT Leigh Anne  
You need ambition, I mean you’d have to have ambition or else you wouldn’t get out and practice. You gotta have some kind of ambition to get out there and practice every day and, you know, want to go to the rodeos and drive all the miles it takes to get there and compete.