Hats and Cattle
Wilsall, Montana
2011
This guy is wearing a traditional cowboy hat while a lot of the riders at the competition were wearing baseball caps. When it comes to roping, it would seem the ball caps have a definite advantage–they’re less likely to be knocked off by a wayward rope. Of course if you can’t even keep your rope from knocking your hat off, I don’t know how you’d expect to be able to actually rope a fast moving steer anyway.
Kansas Tourism site posted photos of the Eldorado rodeo last weekend. One bull rider was wearing a protective helmet, which I thought was a good idea. One of the preparatory moves the cowboy always makes before leaving the chute is to jam his hat on hard. Guess the helmet would eiminate that step and he could concentrate more on wrapping the rope around his hand more tightly. That never looked like a good idea to me in case the rider has to get off before the ride is over.
I’ve seen both helmets and vest-like padding with neck protection on rodeo bull and bronc riders on TV. At the Wilsall roping event the only protection was actually on the steers themselves. They had some protective straps wrapped around their horns and down under their chins. I thought it was to protect the sides of their heads from rope burns, but a woman in the stands told us it was to protect the horns themselves. Apparently they can occasionally get pulled off. Ouch!