Junior Bull Riders parade before the start, Central Hawke's Bay A&P Show, Waipukurau. 12 November 2016 Hawke's Bay Today Photograph by Warren Buckland
Junior Bull Riders parade before the start, Central Hawke's Bay A&P Show, Waipukurau. 12 November 2016 Hawke's Bay Today Photograph by Warren Buckland
Rodeo originated out west in the United States, essentially as another sport enhancing or proving the skills of people in the workplace, in this case cowboys' skills in herding cattle.
The sport has been in New Zealand for many years — the 63rd annual Waimate Rodeo in South Canterbury isbeing held this weekend.
The first national championships were held in 1973, the most recent in Wairoa last year, and there are currently 35 affiliated rodeos in New Zealand.
The events have undoubted spectator appeal, spectators usually packed around the arena, sometimes indoors as was the case when "Xtreme" bullriding was held in the Pettigrew Green Arena in Taradale in 2006.
The major events are bareback, where riders try to stay on a bucking bronco using only a cinch rope hand-hold, the rope and tie, where a rider lassos a calf from their horse, dismounts and pins the calf to the ground, the saddle bronc, in which Hawke's Bay has a current national champion in Graeme Gannon, of Tutira, and in which riders try to stay mounted on a bucking horse using a saddle and a rope, team roping, which involves the lassoing and grounding of a steer, the all-female event of barrel racing, steer wrestling in which riders leap from their horses to wrestle steers to the ground, and bull riding – the attempt to stay aboard till the clock runs out at 8 seconds.
Among its appeals is the family nature of the event, most notably through the family of Rotorua's Merv Church, who was made a member of the Maori Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, but with several examples in Hawke's Bay.
Former national champion bullrider Jonny Ward of Pourerere is now able to watch the younger members of his family in action, and the family of Simon and Lisa Tahau, of Upper Mohaka, are also among those featuring in the events.
"There is a lot of family involvement," says Wairoa Rodeo Club's Harmony Wallace, who was at the forefront of running last year's national championships.
She took part in horse sports, but not rodeo, but had cousins and a son-in-law who competed. "Sometimes, the families go back three and four generations," she said.
