Tuesday, January 27, 2009
News Tough Cowboy at the Gwinnett Center
Posted by Joeff Davis @joeffly on Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 5:10 PM
Thousands of people crowded into the Gwinnett Center Saturday, Jan. 24, 2009, for an evening of energized violence and brutality. The Toughest Cowboy competition had arrived at the Gwinnett Center in Duluth. The contest involved 12 cowboys competing in the triathlon of cowboy chaos, bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding and bull riding. The Gwinnett stop is part of a multi-city tour with the Toughest Cowboy being awarded a Rocky Mountain ranch near Laramie, Wyoming at the end of the three-month contest.
I was allowed to photograph from the rodeo dirt and focused my camera between the ring bars occasionally dodging hyper aggravated animals. I was so close I could hear the animals snort in Pain? Ecstasy? Revenge? Love? Death? I am not sure what they were feeling but they jumped and ran and kicked and screamed like beasts that had just been released from the gates of hell. The cowboys themselves were a beaten and tattered bunch. Tough Cowboy Jared Green from Socorro, New Mexico had to drop out of Saturday's competition because of pain in his shoulder. Green's injuries from rodeo competitions have included breaking both of his ankles, two surgeries on his shoulder, a knee operation, broken ribs, a broken hand, concussions and a knocked-out tooth. Green is only 22 years old.
The whole event seemed to teeter on epic disaster with batshit crazy horses running directly into fences at full speed and cowboys being thrown face first into the ground over and over again inside an arena of 5000 screaming people from the suburbs in cowboy hats and real cowboys from rural Georgia. It was insane, beautiful and chilling.
See more photos of the Toughest Cowboy in our photo galleries.
(Photo by Joeff Davis)
Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
Inflicting pain on an animal for entertainment is abuse, plain and simple. I can't believe anyone would refer to it as "beautiful."
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The only pain I have seen at rodeos was the animals, especially the bulls, inflicting pain on the cowboys.
Joeff, I read your blog with interest, and understand your confusion. For quite a long time I, too, believed horses were enduring pain and, in fact, were bucking because of it. Since then I've changed my mind, coming to understand that rodeo-ing is a way of life, and that the horse is sacred to the cowboy. Horses buck (and bulls too) because their flanks are ultra sensitive. Should that sensitivity be described as pain? Maybe. But maybe not -- I'm inclined to believe what cowboys tell me: that all that rearing and bucking is a reaction to irritation; that the strap doesn't hurt, but it sure does bug them, and they want it off right now. Coincidentally, I returned today from four days in Elko, Nevada, where my husband and I attended the Natl. Cowboy Poetry Gathering. As a writer interested in the cowboy way, I'd like to encourage your readers to visit a working ranch, if they ever get the chance. They may or may not come away feeling differently, but there's a good chance the experience will nudge them toward middle ground. My humble opinion, respectfully submitted. -- Renee Thompson
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