Usually it's a family affair, passed down from generation to generation.
But in the age of television, glitzy arenas and superstar athletes, rodeo
stock contractors find their work becoming more and more popular.
Jim Sutton has seen the development of the craft that once was confined
to dusty outbacks. His family has been in the business for five generations.
They've roped in 50 to 100 bulls and about 650 horses.
"I think there's more money people getting in the rodeo business today
than there's ever been," he says. The sport doesn't attract team
players. It attracts people who like to do it alone.
"It's probably the individuality of the contestants that has a little
luster to it," Sutton says.
His days of being tossed from bulls are over, he says. Your body can only
take being thrown to the ground so many times. But that doesn't mean
he has quit the rodeo altogether.
"I've been a competitor for most [of] my life," Sutton says, "until
I got too old."
He says having a long career riding at the rodeo depends on what events
you decide to participate in. "You can rope a lot longer than you can ride
bulls."
The job is hard. But Sutton wouldn't give it up. "It's probably
the only one I know and I don't look to change," Sutton says. He adds
that it can be a great job for other people as well.
"If they have the interest, it's kind of a satisfying business," he
says. "But I'm not sure how many people would feel the same way I do
if they hadn't grown up with it and been next to it all their life."
It's not essential to have long family roots in ranching to be a rodeo
stock contractor, however. You can get there by a less ridden trail.
Karen Foster's ranch has about 110 head of cattle and 30 to 35 horses.
She was first put out into the rodeo circuit as a barrel racer. She got a
taste of the excitement and satisfaction in that, then started producing rodeos.
Her husband got her involved in the ranching and contracting end of animal
care. But her love of animals goes back quite a lot further.
"I was born in [the city]," Foster says. "I guess I didn't get my
first horse till I was 15....I went up to my aunt's farm all through
the summers, and spent most of the summer up there and cried when I had to
come back home. I guess it was in my blood. Where it came from, I don't
know."
Where it came from is not as important as where it led her. At the farm,
she has to look after animals day and night. When they fall sick, she has
to tend to them. She has to inject them with medication when they need it.
She has to call the veterinarian when they break a leg and have to be put
down.
When she's not at the farm, she's selling trucks or working part
time at the vet's office. But farming is her life.
"Could I do something else and make more money? Probably. I guess it just
depends on what you enjoy, too," says Foster. "Doing this, you're outdoors
and working with the animals. Money sometimes isn't the greatest factor
as long as you enjoy your work and you can live off it."
"I think it's a satisfying business," Sutton says. "You do a lot of
traveling, meet a lot of people, raise the horses that do the job. It isn't
any different than any other type of livestock. You're raising purebred
cattle and you try to get the best. And that's the same in the rodeo
business."