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50 free Rodeo trivia questions with answers. Rodeo started as ranch work: vaqueros in New Spain rounding up cattle, roping calves and breaking horses, and then betting on who did it best. This quiz follows the sport from that Spanish word for round-up through the first contests in Pecos, Deer Trail and Prescott, the birth of Cheyenne Frontier Days and the Calgary Stampede, and on to the arenas of Las Vegas and the PBR. Easy questions cover the seven standard events, the eight-second rule and the barrel-racing cloverleaf. Harder ones dig into the Cowboys' Turtle Association, the bull nobody rode in 309 tries, the only perfect 100-point ride, the yellow bull that rearranged Tuff Hedeman's face, and how rodeo looks in Chile, Brazil, Australia and Mexico. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia or an official source, and the citation sits under each question, so you can settle an argument at the fairgrounds. Built for fans on the road to the NFR, ranch kids, and anyone who has ever wondered why the clown carries a barrel.
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Q 01The word 'rodeo' comes from Spanish and roughly translates into English as what?
Round-up
It descends from the verb rodear, 'to surround', and in Spain once meant a pen for cattle at a market.
Q 02Rodeo grew out of the working skills of which horse-mounted herders of Spain and colonial Mexico?
Vaqueros
The Great Basin term 'buckaroo' is thought to be a corruption of the Spanish word.
Q 03Encyclopedia Britannica's 'world's first public cowboy contest' was held on July 4, 1883, in which town?
Pecos, Texas
It started as an argument between cattle driver Trav Windham and roper Morg Livingston; Windham won and the prize was $40 and blue ribbons.
Q 04Deer Trail, which claims the first rodeo competition in 1869, is a town in which state?
Colorado
The town sits on I-70 about 55 miles east of Denver and had barely a thousand residents at the 2020 census.
Q 05Which town trademarked the phrase 'World's Oldest Rodeo'?
Prescott, Arizona
The trademark on the slogan was registered in 1985, nearly a century after the first show.
Q 06Which annual Wyoming event is nicknamed 'The Daddy of 'em All'?
Cheyenne Frontier Days
It bills itself as the world's largest outdoor rodeo and draws close to 200,000 people over ten days each July.
Q 07The 'Daddy of 'em All' rodeo in Wyoming's capital has been held every year since which year?
1897
A cattle drive of several hundred steers along Interstate 25 into Frontier Park still opens the celebration.
Q 08Which American trick roper founded the Calgary Stampede in 1912?
Guy Weadick
He had come to Calgary with the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch show and wanted something that felt more like the real West than a Wild West show.
Q 09What slogan does the Calgary Stampede use to bill itself?
The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth
The ten-day July festival attracts more than a million visitors, and the city's CFL team is named the Stampeders after it.
Q 10Which sport, introduced at the 1923 Calgary Stampede, remains its signature race?
Chuckwagon racing
Only six wagons ran that first year for a total purse of $275; the modern Rangeland Derby is nicknamed the 'Half-Mile of Hell'.
Q 11Which is the only rodeo event in which men and women compete together?
Team roping
It grew out of the way ranch hands restrained a full-grown steer for doctoring, and each roper has a rating from 1 to 10.
Q 12Barrel racers gallop around three barrels in what pattern?
Cloverleaf
Early contests alternated between a figure eight and this pattern; the harder one won out.
Q 13Steer wrestling is also known by which name?
Bulldogging
It is widely considered the most physically dangerous timed event, since the cowboy dives head first off a running horse.
Q 21Lane Frost died in 1989 after being gored following a successful ride on which bull?
Takin' Care of Business
He had scored 85 points on the bull at Cheyenne when it turned on him in the mud; a statue of him now stands at the arena.
Q 22Which actor played Lane Frost in the 1994 film 8 Seconds?
Luke Perry
The title is the length of a scored ride, and the film ends with Tuff Hedeman riding an extra eight seconds in tribute at the NFR.
Q 23Which yellow bull broke every major bone in Tuff Hedeman's face at the 1995 PBR World Finals?
Bodacious
He was born a Charolais-Brahman cross in Oklahoma and sold as a three-year-old for about $700, the going rate for beef on the hoof.
Q 14Which Black cowboy, billed as 'The Dusky Demon' in the 101 Ranch Wild West Show, invented steer wrestling?
Bill Pickett
His original method involved biting the steer's lip and falling backward, a trick he copied from cattle-catching bulldogs.
Q 15Which is the oldest of rodeo's timed events?
Tie-down roping
The horse does half the work: a well-trained roping horse backs up slowly to keep the lariat snug while the cowboy ties three feet.
Q 16A bareback bronc rider is allowed to hang on only with what piece of equipment?
A rigging
Saddle bronc riders, by contrast, use a hornless saddle and a heavy rein attached to a halter.
Q 17Before it was cut to eight, how many seconds did the rules originally require a bull rider to stay on?
10
Touching the bull or yourself with the free hand at any point in the ride also means a no-score.
Q 18In the PRCA and PBR, what is a perfect bull riding score?
100
Half the marks go to the rider and half to the bull, so a lazy animal can sink a flawless ride.
Q 19Which bull did Wade Leslie ride for the only perfect 100-point score in 1991?
Wolfman
The bull's two grandfathers were the legendary Oscar and Red Rock, both ProRodeo Hall of Fame animals.
Q 20How many times did bull riders attempt Red Rock without a single qualified ride in his career?
309
The only man to ride him was Lane Frost, in a 1988 exhibition series after the bull was brought out of retirement.
Q 24Bushwacker, ranked the top bull in PBR history, set a PBR record with how many consecutive buckoffs?
42
J.B. Mauney finally rode him in August 2013 on his tenth try; the bull won three world titles and had his own Twitter account.
Q 25Which cowboy, the 'Babe Ruth of rodeo', held the record of 16 world championships from 1959 until 2003?
Jim Shoulders
He won his first bull riding contest at 14 for $18 and later helped design Wrangler's 13MWZ 'cowboy cut' jeans.
Q 26Which documentary about Larry Mahan's 1973 comeback won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature?
The Great American Cowboy
Mahan won five straight all-around titles from 1966 to 1970 and was the first to contest three NFR events in one year.
Q 27Which cowboy was dubbed 'King of the Cowboys' after a record seventh all-around world title in 1998?
Ty Murray
He rode all three roughstock events, co-founded the PBR, and later spent 15 years as a PBR television commentator.
Q 28Who holds the record for the most PRCA world championship titles, with 26?
Trevor Brazile
Fourteen of them are all-around titles, double the previous record, and he was the first PRCA cowboy past $3 million in career earnings.
Q 29Which saddle bronc legend appeared on the cover of Life magazine in October 1951?
Casey Tibbs
He later worked as a Hollywood stuntman and actor and died at home while watching the 1990 Super Bowl.
Q 30The PRCA traces its origin to a 1936 cowboy walkout at which arena?
Boston Garden
Promoter W.T. Johnson had refused to add entry fees to the purse; the strikers named themselves the Cowboys' Turtle Association.