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Cowboy. Cattle. Horses. Leather. Dirt. Mud. Sweat. Blood. Guts. All of these words can only conjure up one image, one word. Rodeo. The word "rodeo" comes from the Spanish word rodear (to surround) and is pronounced ro-day-oh". Today it is a competitive sport in which riders display their skill in activities related to livestock raising, such as riding and roping cattle and horses.

Rodeo has come a long way from its roots in the 1860s and 1870s roundup camps when the annual roundup and branding of cattle encouraged informal contests among the working cowboys. These skills have a rich history tracing back to the great horsemanship traditions of the Spanish conquistadors.

During the late 1700s and early 1800s, Spain held much of the land that is the American West. Established missions raised cattle for America's flourishing market. The need grew for skilled horsemen to handle and manage the herds. Many of the men running the missions were of Spanish nobility, trained in skills of horsemanship and roping practiced in Spain for centuries. These skills were passed on to their workers, known as vaqueros". Once these lands were converted to privately owned ranchos during Mexico's rule, the vaqueros found work running cattle and managing the rangelands. Even after the United States gained control in 1848, these vaqueros continued to work, alongside their American counterparts.

The ending of the Civil War, when cattle spread throughout the west, the numbers of American cowboys grew. Once or twice each year, cowhands rounded up the cattle on the open range and drove them through miles and miles of vast open land to various marketing centers (stockyards). There in celebration of their job completed, informal competition was common. Cowboys might issue challenges to each other to see who really was the best at cutting cattle or throwing a rope. Spectators would inevitably gather.

Technology arrives in the form of railroad stock cars, replacing the necessity of time-consuming cattle drives. Open rangeland becomes defined by barbed wire culminating in the dwindling demand for cowboy. Many cowboys had to seek a new way of making a living.

The first formal rodeo contest probably was held in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1872. Between 1890 and 1910, rodeo emerged as public entertainment through various Wild West Shows and performances at Fourth of July celebrations and cattlemen's conventions. Not until the first decades of the twentieth century did rodeo become recognized as a competitive sport. Annual stampedes, roundups and frontier day's events attracted regional audiences and contestants through the West, often providing the only entertainment for miles. By the mid-1920's, with the help of early promoters, championship events at Boston Garden and New York City's Madison Square Garden attracted nationwide focus.

The Rodeo Association of America (RAA), founded in 1929, combined a group of managers and promoters and structure to the rodeo. The RAA sanctioned events, selected judges and established purse awards and point systems to determine all-around champions. Since 1946, the organization has acted as the International Rodeo Association (IRA).

Until 1936, rodeo contestants themselves remained unorganized. Then an indomitable group formed the Cowboys Turtle Association (CTA) during a strike at the Boston Garden World Championship. The CTA's goal was to offer cowboys larger purse awards, competent judges, uniform rules and regulations throughout the rodeo system for the safety of competitors and animals, and to protect their rights. The cowboys adopted the name Turtles" because they were slow" to organize, but had finally stuck their necks out for what they believed in. In 1945, the CTA became the Rodeo Cowboys Association (RCA), and was renamed in 1975 to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA), located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Most major rodeos fall under the jurisdiction of the PRCA.

A rodeo boasts five standardized events including, but not limited to, bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, calf roping, and the ever-watched bull riding. Bull riding has become so popular that a group named Professional Bull Riders (PBR) was organized, promoting bull riding only events. Many rodeos include barrel racing, a sport dominated by women who have their own organization, Women's Professional Rodeo Association (WPRA).

Today's rodeos offer cash prizes. Points are tallied up based on cash winnings and these high point makers are advanced to final rodeos. Ranking contestants compete in more than 100 rodeos per year for total prize money in excess of twelve million dollars plus a variety of valuable awards.

The sport is especially popular in the United States and Canada, and about 2000 rodeos are held annually in those countries. Today's leading rodeos include Frontier Days, in Cheyenne, Wyoming; National Finals Rodeo, in Las-Vegas, Nevada; National Western Stockshow and Rodeo, in Denver, Colorado; Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, in Houston, Texas; and Calgary Exhibition and Stampede, in Calgary, Alberta. A person wouldn't have to travel too far to find rodeo competition being played out.

Rodeo is now big business. With more than 170,000 fans attending the National Finals Rodeo in Vegas and more than 13 million viewers tuning into the finals on ESPN, rodeo is more popular and more competitive than ever.