Cutting Is Over! Long Live Cutting!

The last cut has been run at the NHSFR of 2008. We have run the results, awarded the saddles and buckles and scholarships and boots and and and. Much as we bemoan the waiting for them to finish each performance, and the technical difficulties we usually have retrieving the official results from the arena, it's still my favorite event. Since the NHSRA, and rodeo in general, is partly the SCA for US Western frontier heritage, and specifically the skills of horsemanship, it's just possible that cutting cattle on horseback is the most authentic of the skills on display. Roping is certainly part of open-range cattle-herding, but if you can't cut the animal you want from the herd, you can't rope and deal with that animal. It's also the sport that is most dependent on the horse's skill, since the rider's contribution, once helping the horse choose a cow to play with, is primarily to put on their best poker face and stay in the saddle while the horse does all the dodging, challenging and running necessary to keep the cow away from its herd.

You're given 2.5 minutes to cut. In that time, the best cutters can gently remove a single cow from the herd three times, and keep it out without having his buddies help keep it in play too much. Doing this while making it appear that the horse is doing it almost entirely on its own and picking active but not panicky cattle can earn you a score of 70+ per judge, so we have totals from three judges of 220+.  

The judges' card is a series of merits and demerits that would make a figure skater cringe, however. Guessing the final score is hard for the unwashed masses, aside from obvious problems like losing a cow back to the herd or out the back of the arena, having your horse bite or otherwise molest the cattle, etc. 

The fact that the horse is as much the competitor as the rider on his back means that consistently good scores in cutting show as much about the rider's ability to train and/or respect the training of the horse as their ability to perform in an arena. That's extra cool. And these horses are good.

Now, next time I'm bringin' the wifi gear to build a MESH backbone to get actual results digitally direct from the secretary's desk in the cutting barn, without having to use golf-cart-net or nasssty faxessss.

Rodeo Geekery

I grew up overseas (that is, not in the US) for the most part, and I never thought I'd get interested in - and certainly not involved with - rodeo. My perception of rodeo was that it was a silly thing, for redneck boys who never wanted to grow up and who felt the need to annoy animals for fun.

Almost twenty years ago, my coblogger Bryan started working for the NHSRA, rewriting the computer program they used to run their national finals. It does things like randomly sort the contestants into events, track scores and so on; it's an important part of the finals. At the time, when he talked about it, I thought that it sounded deathly dull. Who cared about rodeo? I didn't see any reason, except possibly large sums of money, to get involved.

Over the next few years, it was just part of the summer schedule; Bryan would be gone for a couple of weeks in July. When he got back, I'd ask him how the rodeo went, and he would tell me that it went fine. And then he would talk about the events, and I would listen politely in that way that we do when the person speaking to us is blethering on about something dull, but we don't want to hurt their feelings by actually walking away.

Ten years ago, his regular cohort couldn't go, and he invited me. I needed money at the time, so I was happy to go along. We went to Gillete, Wyoming, for the 50th anniversary National High School Finals Rodeo, and it was a very cool trip. We spent a couple of days travelling there, including camping in Rocky Mountain National Park, which was a lot of fun.

And the rodeo went well. I enjoyed it and was quite excited about some of the geeky ideas we had, ideas for making the rodeo tech work even better. I even enjoyed some of the events. I learned about the difference between rough stock and timed events, learned that I enjoyed watching rodeo.

Flash forward a few years; Bryan called to tell me that the NHSRA was adding a junior high finals, and would I like to go? I would, as it turned out. The Wrangler Junior High Finals Rodeo (WJHFR) went very well, and I enjoyed the setting even more.

Now I'm fully a rodeo geek. I've learned a lot about rodeo and about rodeo people, those who compete and those who run the rodeo. I'm proud to be able to help out.