The Ranch Round Up Rodeo is unique in its competition events. The most important aspect of the Round Up to remember is that it is NOT a professional rodeo. On the contrary, it is a gathering of professional cowboys. The events selected for the rodeo represent the everyday work of these professional cowboys. There is no bull riding at the Round Up Rodeo, for example, because no self-respecting cowboy would actually try to ride a bull – unless for a practical joke.
It is important to understand the distinct separate identities of professional working cowboy and professional rodeo cowboy. Working cowboys perform work in many of the same ways they have been done for hundreds of years. They care for the cattle to ensure their survival to reach the tables of hungry Americans. Rodeo cowboys are their own subculture of the idea of the American cowboy and sometimes the brunt of sarcastic comments and jokes by actual working cowboys. Rodeo cowboys perform for an audience. They compete for prize money in events scripted from the idea of the cowboy culture for the excitement and entertainment of the audience. Rodeo cowboys have developed their own symbols of their profession: flak vests, and sponsor symbols that distinctly separate them from the world of the working cowboy. They don boots, stetsons, and spurs, but only for the show or photo advertisements, not every day as the working cowboy.
