Rodeo takes Tar Heels for rollicking bullride

BENSON - As a sea of riders, each topped with a cowboy hat, floats up the main thoroughfare, Confederate flags proclaim "Heritage not Hate" and country music blares from a bar's open doors.

It's Friday night during the 55th annual Benson Mule Days, and it's time for the rodeo.

Originating from contests between ranch hands in the West more than 100 years ago, rodeo has expanded, gaining fans with its dangerous allure and homegrown appeal.

Traci Morris' love for rodeo runs as deep as her Southern accent. President of the Southern Rodeo Association, the oldest rodeo organization east of the Missippi, 41-year-old Morris has attended Mule Days in the past and has participated in a variety of other rodeos.

Though the overwhelming expenses of the sport, including animal care, entry fees and travel expenses, have forced her at times to put down her lasso, she always comes back to the arena.

"I've tried to quit twice," she said. "I turned my horse out of the pasture, I was bumming rides to work, and I sat here every Friday and Saturday and watched my friends (go to the rodeo). That only lasted six months."

Now, Morris competes in rodeos on the weekends and oversees the association's board meetings and organization.

The phenomenon of the "weekend warrior," as she described it, is common, because entering a rodeo means paying around $50 per individual event, with no win guaranteed.

Even the professional cowboys enter at their own risk.

"It's not like the NFL," Morris said. "If they don't win, they go home broke. You have to be at the top of the game."

Morris attributes the popularity of rodeo to the television coverage that has steadily increased in the past 15 years.

That growth includes increased corporate sponsorship, especially of bull riders, and a number of professional rodeo associations, for both men and women.

In amateur rodeo, cowgirls generally compete in barrel racing and team roping - though there are professional women who compete in bull riding, calf roping and other predominantly male events.

Morris said that calf roping is the event that makes the most people cringe. After roping a calf, the cowboy jumps off his horse and races the clock to lift the 240-pound to 300-pound calf, flip it on its back and tie three of its legs together.

Shielding her eyes from the scene, Jena Kelly, a spectator at Mule Days, said she was looking forward to the barrel racing and everyone's favorite, bull riding.

"I don't like dirt. I don't like horses. Last year, I came to shut (my friend) up, and now I'm hooked," she said between bites of homemade peach ice cream.

Although many fear that the animals are being harmed, Morris emphasized the well-being of the riders and animals as being equally important.

Not only are the animals expensive, she said, but they are uninsured, making their welfare vital. Straps are placed in front of the back legs of the horses and bulls to create a "ticklish" effect, similar to tickling someone under the armpits.

"You put that on 'em to enhance their buckin' ... it don't hurt 'em whatsoever," Morris said. Spurs are not used, and the animals wear protective flaps to prevent rope burn. The bucking straps are covered in sheepskin and baby powder, she added.

There are checks in place to protect the riders too. Designated bullfighters help insure safety by standing by to untangle riders from the ropes and to help those who fall.

Morris said she has seen two rodeo deaths - one cowboy was crushed under the foot of a bull and another collided head-on with a bull.

But most spectators were too busy watching the entertaining acts between events to think of injury.

A clown told jokes throughout the evening, and trick riders rode out in shiny, sequined outfits, performing circus-like feats around the ring.

Friday night's clown, Matt Merritt, is a Louisiana native who has performed at rodeos in the South and West. He said that the crowds he has seen in North Carolina are always easier to please than the ones west of the Mississippi.

"Back there the crowds are harder - everybody's got cowboy in 'em," Merritt said. "They are more critical. ... Out here people don't know much (about rodeo)."

Whether or not rodeo's cultural niche in North Carolina is growing, Morris stressed the sport's powerful pull on riders and spectators, new and old.

"People think it's only out west, but everything drifts out here," she said. "It's an expensive, dangerous sport, but it's something that's hard to quit."

Contact the Features Editor at features@unc.edu.