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How to Watch a

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P ut a handle on a wild horse, turn The judge's signal for missing a good rider will spur the horse contin-
him out of the shelter of the chute horse out of the chute, given to the uously over the shoulder for the full
and try to ride him as he turns every announcer and the crowd after the eight seconds, timing his kicking to
way but inside out. ride is over, is a slap to the shoulder. the horse's bucks so that horse and l
That, at a glance, is what the aver- The ride lasts for eight seconds, a man seem to work in coordination.
age American sees in bareback bronc modern rule designed to spare scarce Mark down the man who can't keep
riding. But the real rodeo fan sees a bucking horses that recognizes that his spurs ahead of the bronc's should-
lot more in this event than a series of most broncs buck their best-or worst ers or who "takes a-hold" by tucking
wild, hairy rides. -in the first dozen jumps. During the hooks safely into the rigging
He looks for the actions that make that time, the rider can't touch any cinch. The judge's markings on both
a good ride better and listens for the part of the horse, or the rigging with horse and ride are combined and the
announced scores that will tell him his free hand. If he does the judge scores of both judges are then added
who's won. He'll watch the judges in will signal the disqualification by together for the announcement. An
the striped vests for the signals that grabbing a wrist over his head when average horse for example, will be
indicate whether - and why - a the ride is over. marked 75 by each judge and an av-
contestant disqualifies. Actually the The judges mark both the horse- erage ride will earn a marking of 10
disqualifications are frequently the on how well he bucks-and the rid- on each side. Each judge has a score
easiest things for the spectator to spot er-on how well he spurs. The system of 85; added together they would be
for himself. It's scoring the ride that is simple enough for the fan to apply announced as a marking of 170--
gets tricky. for himself. The "spread" on marking just average. Usually the winners of
First thing that a bareback rider the horse is from 65 to 85. A high a bareback riding contest will mark
must do is spur his bronc out of the marked bronc will buck high every 175 or better. The highest marking
chute. The rules require him to have jump and finish each buck with a likely to be seen at any rodeo would
his spurs over the break (swell) of high, hard kick behind. If he turns be 190 and a very poor showing by
the shoulders when the bronc's front back midway through the ride or both horse and man will be marked
feet hit the ground first jump out of bucks in a slow circle, so much the under 160.
the chute. If he "misses him out" better. The .bareback rider has only a sim-
you'll see it. And you can get a tip Broncs that run halfway across the ple rigging-a smooth surcingle with
off on the close calls by glancing at arena before bucking, or slow down a handhold he grips between his
the judges. If they watch the rest of their pitching halfway through the thighs-to hold himself on the horse.
the ride, the rider undoubtedly quali- ride, are marked down accordingly. As long as one hand is free, anything
fied on that point. But if they turn The difference in the way the horses goes, riding sideways, backwards or
their backs, put down a "goose egg", buck- and are scored- is made up for upside down. But if he bucks off, he's
the cowboy's picture-word for the zero in the draw. Bareback riders are out. There's no judge's signal for that
the judge marks in his book, the rider matched with their mounts by lot. since a buckoff is a disqualification
is disqualified. The rider is scored from 1 to 20. A obvious to everybody-even the little
old lady from Philadelphia.

Peter Brown, star of Warner Bros.
'Lawman' series and Grand Marshall
for Sunday's events, is seen
here w ith Rodeo Queen Carolyn
Komant and Lyle Greenman,
producer of this 34th Annual
Newhall-Saugus Rodeo.