Equipment: Traditional and Safety

Billy-Bob, Big Vinnie, unknown cowboy.  NorCal Jr. Rodeo Clements, Ca. 2010

I want to take a moment to go over the equipment that is used.  Equipment is important in an rough stock event. 

     Now a sheep, calf, steer, or bull can be ridden in basically any attire but there is a standard that should be followed for both tradition and safety. 

     We'll start at the top and work our way down.  In the youth events a helmet is required.  In the adult events and in the youth events where the child has turned 18 a helmet is strongly recommended but not required and you will see some of the adults just wearing their cowboy hats.  Billy-Bob and most of the kids use a youth hockey helmet, with a bit different face mask.  A hockey helmet is pretty easy to find and we went to our local feed store to order one.  As we've gotten further along on Billy-Bob's adventures we have had a chance to look at all the different kinds of helmets that are worn, from the standard hockey helmets to made for bull riding helmets.  The little kids' helmets have chin straps but as they move up a chin strap becomes a hindrance because a helmet needs to be able to come off if a bull's horn catches the helmet.  Billy-Bob was small when he started and finding something that would keep the helmet up high enough that he could see was not easy.  I padded the top with socks, washcloths, and finally used kotex.  I'm sure that kotex is not something a dad would think off and we did get some funny looks, but with the sticky backing the kotex stayed in place while everything else fell out.  Now Mike needs to adjust the helmet up as it's finally tight on Billy-Bob's head.

     Moving on is a mouth guard.  Billy-Bob likes a mouth guard that attaches to his helmet.  Which for a kid that hits the dirt face first a lot is kind of nasty!  I rinse it out with a water bottle every couple of rides but still that dirt has all kinds of things I don't even want to think about.  On the other hand this keeps Billy-Bob from losing his mouth guard.  We tried everything not to lose the mouth guards and they were kept at various times in the case one came in, in Billy-Bob's vest pocket, and my all time favorite (said sarcastically) in my pocket both before and after the guard had been in his mouth.  We went through about five mouth guards, sometimes buying them on the way to rides and using hotel microwaves to boil the water to shape them to his mouth.  We also found out that Billy-Bob had such a tiny mouth when he first started that even trimming cutting the thing down to fit still left little sores in the back of Billy-Bob's mouth. 

     The long sleeve western shirt is a must.  We live in an area that can get HOT in the summer, over 100 and sometimes over 110, a long sleeve shirt is miserable.  Billy-Bob and I usually carry ours in the car and put them on once we get to the event.  Billy-Bob does not like to change his shirt behind the chutes, amazingly enough he's shy of other boys seeing him, he used to wear a shirt swimming, so he will normally change in the car.  Occasionally Billy-Bob will just put his western shirt on over a t-shirt.  Not wanting the boys to see something they shouldn't, I have learned to change quickly in the SUV.  I open the front and back doors, stand facing the inside of the car and whip off my shirt and pull on my western shirt.  The western shirt is worn not just for tradition but safety also.  A long sleeve shirt gives a layer of protection to the kids when they hit the dirt, sometimes the shirt is ripped but the skin's not even scratched.

     The next important piece of equipment that the rider wears is a padded vest.  These are tailored looking and can adjust to fit, with velcro on the shoulders, and pull tabs with velcro on the sides and they are zippered fronts.  Again, Billy-Bob was so small when he started that his aunt put in extra vecro down the front to get the shoulders to fit.

     A glove for the riding hand is a must.  Billy-Bob started with a TeeBall glove but has since moved into a youth bull riding glove.  We had such a hard time finding these gloves.  Linda down at our feed store spent a lot of time and energy trying to get Billy-Bob a glove ordered.  We took measurements and once Linda even called a company while we were standing there.  The first glove that got ordered was from a company that, after promising we would get the glove in time, never did send anything.  The next glove we ordered was way to big and got sent back.  The glove Billy-Bob now wears finally fits him.  It spent a year in his gear bag until Billy-Bob's hand grew enough to wear and still has to be taped onto his wrist to make it tight.  The gloves are made out of leather and Billy-Bob's goes down his wrist and has a tail of sorts that tightens on and velcros in place.  The problem with a too big glove, especially in calf riding, is that the child can not get a good grip on his/her rope and the fingers can bind under and get hung up in the rope.  Not a safe issue at all.

     Most cowboys wear a belt with a belt buckle.  But you will notice that the riders don't normally keep the belt buckles on.  This was not a big thing in mutton busting but once Billy-Bob moved up to calf riding, the belt needed to come off for safety.  We had a bit of a problem as Billy-Bob is usually in slim pants and still needs the belt to cinch them tight.  A young man that rode NorCal Jr. Rodeo this last season, Lane McNearny, showed Billy-Bob a neat little trick.  Take a piece of two of the fringe from the chaps and use that to tie two belt loops together.  This keeps the pants up safely.

     Onto pants.  Would any old pants do?  Why only wear jeans?  The answer starts in tradition but ends in safety.  Denim material is pretty thick and can withstand a hoof scraping down the side of it, mostly without tearing.  Sometimes, with the older boys, it can hold up to a bull horn also.  Not that I'm saying it won't rip or tear, one young man two years ago got the seat of his pants ripped out by a bull's horn, but the skin under was still intact.

     Chaps look like they are just for decoration don't they?  All prettied up with fringe a-flying?  Some boys don't use chaps or are saving for chaps.  Chaps are made of leather and depending on how fancy they are stamped depends on the price.  Billy-Bob's going on four years with the pair of chaps he's using, he started with them way above his belt and now they have been dropped below.  I am hoping that he'll win something this year that will have chaps as a prize, otherwise he will need new ones next year.  Chaps also play a pretty important role in safety also by adding an extra layer between the foot or horn and the skin. 

     Boots are traditional and safety wear also for the riders.  You may notice the cowboy lifesafers, the bull fighters, wearing tennis because they need traction, but the riders will be wearing boots.  Boots give the foot more protection for being stomped on and we have come to learn, instead of boot ties, long lacers are the best.  Boot ties are straps that go  around the boot to tighten the top of the boot so that the boot does not come off during the cowboys ride.

     Two last important pieces of equipment are the spurs and the mutton, calf, steer, or bull rope. 

          The spurs are traditional but they are very functional also.  Spurs have three parts, the spur, the rowel or the jangly part at the end, and the boot strap ~ the part that goes over the top of the boot to hold the spur in place.  The rowels on bull riding spurs are not supposed to move.  Billy-Bob started with a generic pair of child's spurs.  These are smaller roping type spurs, where the rowel moves.  In riding and training horses rowels need to be able to roll so they do not inflict damage on the horse but still work as an aid in cueing the horse.   But bull riding spurs need to stay fixed in aiding the rider to get a better grip on the side of the animal . We used a piece of baling wire to fix Billy-Bob's rowels from moving.  This last year we bought Billy-Bob bull riding spurs.  Linda again went through the catalog and found the smallest pair of bull riding youth spurs she could find, with a 45 degree tilted inward angle.  Mike still had to heat them and squeeze them smaller to stay on Billy-Bob's feet.

         Finally the rope.  Billy-Bob got a brand new hand tied Pro Calf Rope from Tom Scrivner owner of Reata ropes this last season.  It has a half sized handle, for his smaller hand, a braided handle, to keep it from rolling over, and a braided tail, to keep the tail from twisting.  Billy-Bob's first mutton rope came again from a catalog order.  Just a basic white cotton rope.  The year he was going to start exhibitioning in calfs, to get ready for the step up from sheep, we bought a calf rope for twenty dollars from a steer rider, unfortunately, I didn't know this, the handle was starting to roll over, which will get a kid hung up.  Then we ordered a calf rope online, the one that came was so small it would have fit the sheep he'd been riding and it was not in the color shown, red.  Finally a steer riders dad showed my his son's rope and we ordered the Pro Calf Rope.  I don't think that Tom had made a Pro Calf Rope before as he kept referring to it as a Pro Steer Rope, but it is a nice rope and was reasonably priced!

     There you have it, all the gear a mutton buster, calf, steer, or bull rider will use for each ride.  They all carry other things in their bags, water, food, good luck charms, wire cutters, wire brushes, rosin, glycerin, pliers, wire, phones, and toys to name just a few.

Everything has a use and an importance.  Unfortunately due to my lack of knowledge in the area and Billy-Bob's young age, it's taken us a long time to learn the ins and outs of the usage of a lot of the equipment.  Just ask Billy-Bob now though, and he will give you a demonstration and a lecture why he uses each piece.