| Show A rodeo in 1900 tty lIy Thelma A A. A Thacker The sport of ot rodeo as we know it today evolved evolve naturally from the everyday activities of ot the working cowboy Evenings and Sundays found the ranch hands clustered on the top rail of ot the corral cheering wildly as one of ot the boys attempted to top off oft a bronc out of the rough string SOON COWBOYS from one ranch began competing with cowboys from a neighboring spread and the bucking horse contests were on Roping events and races were soon added and thus was born the original American sport of rodeo At the D Bar T we recently concluded our Rodeo Contest the purpose of which was to see who could remember the earliest date of a rodeo here herein in the Uintah Basin The winner of this contest is a very lively and well-known well lady In the Vernal area Sue Ruple Watson SUE REMEMBERS when her father and the cowboys on the Island Park ranch would bring the roughest horses they had to the bucking contests at Burtons Burton's Lake It was a matter of pride to the ranchers to come up with the tough toughest st meanest outlaw that no cowboy could ride She remembers in particular particular par par- one time when she was about six years old which would be the year 1900 Her father had a big brown stallion that didn't like spurs He was easy to ride until someone put the spurs to him then he would explode At that time the bucking contests were held In a field at Burtons Burton's Lake with spectators sitting silting around on the ground or wooden boxes or anything they would find The cowboys would take a horse Into the middle of the field throw a saddle on him climb aboard and the fun was on HANK RUPLE HUPLE had quite a flair for the dramatic and a special pride in both his animals and his small daughter Six year old Suzy was justa just a tiny little thing and Hank set her up on the broad bare bareback bareback bareback back of the bj big stallion twisted a loop around his nose and handed the rope to Sue and told her to ride out to the middle of the field and give the horse to the man there Little Sue trotted the big bighorse bighorse bighorse horse out to the wa waiting i ting cowboy slid down off his back and ran to her mothers mother's side The cowboy slapped the saddle on swung Into it and touched his spurs to the brown hide and 11 hundred pounds of power went off under him He lie lasted about two jumps SUE I REMEMBERS EnS that she was somewhat of oC a heroine among her contemporaries for fora a time for being able to ride a horse bareback that threw a cowboy out of the saddle Shortly after this Burtons Burton's L Lake became a very popular resort with boating picnicking horse races and of course bucking and roping contests |
