Warkworth Western Weekend Rodeo
Warkworth Western Weekend Rodeo presents
the finest Rodeo talent in North America.
Cowboys and Cow Girls display their courage
competing in "activities of necessity" since
the dawn of time when man first domesticated
the horse and raised bovine in Europe.
When Columbus arrived in 1492, equidae
had been absent from the Western Hemisphere
for millennia and the indigenous peoples
of the Americas had no word for “horse” in
their language. The horse had become
extinct in North America at the end of
the last Ice Age approximately 11,000
years ago and were not seen again until
the second Columbus sailing when the
Spanish introduced the Iberian horse
to the new world (Caribbean) a year later
in 1493. The Spanish missions continued
breeding programs and were established
on the mainland (Mexico) in the 1500's
by the Conquistadors. The Spanish horses
would eventually be lost or stolen and
eventually reproduced into large feral
herds, which became known as the "Mustang" of
the Great Plains. The horse had returned.
As a side note, the wheel did not exist
in the Western Hemisphere until introduced
by the Europeans.
The origins of Rodeo began from the
real life tasks of the vaqueros (Spanish
version of the cowboy) and cowboys of
the Americas as they herded cattle for
various purposes such as branding, counting,
having their health checked, rounded
up for the move to new pastures, or for
cattle drives to market often hundreds
of miles away. The term Rodeo was also
used to refer to the sport which arose
out of the working practices of cattle
ranching, and it is this latter usage
was adopted into the cowboy tradition
of the United States and Canada.
The word rodeo first appeared in the
English language circa 1825–1834
to describe “cattle round-up” or "cattle
ring". Rodeo is derived from the
Spanish word 'rodear', meaning to go
around or surround. It often referred
to 'a
pen for cattle at a market or fair.'
Rodeo activities trace back to the Spanish
ranches of the 1700’s. During the
opening of the west in the early 1800’s
American cowboys became exposed to vaqueros
from Mexico, Texas and California and
began to learn about their ranching techniques.
The way of the west was born as ranchers
began holding informal competitions after
a long days work or in celebration after
the long cattle drives of the dusty Wild
West. The earliest recorded rodeo was
reported in 1864.
The west has been romanticized and the
Warkworth Western Weekend Rodeo brings
the cowboy’s legend to you.
You will see the finest horsemen continuing
the legend that made the Old West.
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