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Bill’s Warbag – Bull Dogging…



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The first riding and roping contest I ever attended was given by Buffalo Bill Cody at North Platte, Nebraska, where I was born in 1876. It was the Fourth of July, 1882, and, according to all reports I have read, it was the first contest ever recorded.

I went to the contest with my mother and her sister, Aunt Clara Hopkins. I was a small boy just six years old so don’t remember too much about it. I do remember there was a lot of lumber wagons, spring wagons, buggies, and saddle horses there. I remember Buffalo Bill telling the people about the contest and saying that the cowboys was all good riders and would ride anything that had hair on.

That was about the time rodeos started, but they didn’t start to call them rodeos until about the 1920s. They was known as Frontier Days, roundups, contests, and what not. Those first shows was mostly riding and roping contests. Later they added bull dogging, trick roping, trick riding, and other Western stunts and called them rodeos.

At first, those contests was more for sport and not too much money was attached to the contests, but now the rodeo game is very popular and a lot of money is paid to the top hands. It is a pretty tough game to follow, and lots of the boys get hurt, crippled, and sometimes killed. It is almost as bad as football to cripple the contestants. However, I would just as soon have a horse or steer fall on me as have a bunch of football players stacked on me.

To get back to rodeos, when they first began to ride out of chutes, there was quite a lot of riders hurt in the chutes. After they got more experience building chute gates, there was hardly ever an accident in the riding chute.

Outside of Brahma bull riding, I think bull dogging is the most dangerous job in the rodeo game, especially if it is a little slippery. A dogger may throw a knee out of place or bugger his ankles stopping a steer.

I remember back over 50 years ago when I was living on Blue Creek south of Billings, Montana. (this column was written in October 1963) they were just starting to bull dog. There was some Texas steers that was running over in the Blue Creek country close to my ranch. George Williams and I started to learn to dog on those small long-horned steers. After throwing a few of them, we thought we was ready to contest. I think it was Miles City, Montana, that we went to enter our first dogging contest.

At that time, they used to drop off a horse when the steer was running fast, grab the steer by the horns, and throw all their weight on his head. The steer’s horns hit the ground, and he took what was called a hoolihan as he turned over in the air. It wasn’t long until that was against contest rules. Now you have to stop the steer before you throw him down,

At that Miles City contest, George dogged first. I don’t know what happened but George’s steer got away. There was a water tank out in the infield of the track for the steers to drink, and that’s where the bull dogging was done. The night before, someone had turned the water on in the tank and forgot to turn it off so it was all wet around the tank.

When they turned my steer out, he came out on high and headed right for the big water tank. He was a fast steer and was really trying to get away. Just before he got to the tank, I got close enough to jump at him. It was slippery around that tank. My horse slipped, the steer slipped, and

somehow I slipped. The steer turned over in the air and come down broadside on top of me. He sure mashed me right in that loblolly of mud and steer manure.

I was sure a dirty-looking mess. I clawed stuff out of my ears and eyes until I could see and then jumped in the water tank to clean off the rest of me. The people sure had a good laugh at my expense. I had all the bull dogging I wanted and never tried to bull dog a steer again.

Note: If you enjoyed this story, you will undoubtedly enjoy more of Bill’s stories. He wrote two autobiographical books in the 1950s, both illustrated by the great cowboy artist, J.K. Ralston: They Were Good Men and Salty Cusses and Both Feet in the Stirrups. In 2006, his great-granddaughter Linda Grosskopf wrote his life story and included some family pictures and four dozen of his stories — Treasures from Bill’s Warbag. All three books are available; each sells for $25 postpaid. Make check out to Linda Grosskopf and mail to 1941 Squaw Creek Road, Huntley, MT 59037. Great gifts!

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