Barrel Racing is a timed rodeo event that demands some of the most athletic horses and dedicated riders in order to be successful in terms of financial earnings.

The sport in itself consists of horse and rider combining the horse's athletic ability and the rider's superb horsemanship skills in order to safely and successfully maneuver the horse around three 55 gallon closed end metal barrels placed in a cloverleaf pattern in the center of an arena at breakneck speeds. In timed rodeo events, the purpose is to make a run as fast as possible while the time is being clocked either by an electric eye, a device using a laser system to record times, or by an arena attendant or judge who manually takes the time using a keen eye and a flag to let a clocker know when to hit the timer stop.

The timer begins when horse and rider cross the start line, and ends when the barrel pattern has been successfully executed and horse and rider cross the finish line. The riders time, depending on several factors most commonly, The horse's physical and mental condition, the riders horsemanship abilities, and type of ground or footing (the quality, depth, content etc. of the sand or dirt in each arena) will ultimately decide who the winner will be. More Information

Calf roping (or tie-down roping, as it's referred to by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the International Professional Rodeo Association) is a rodeo event that features a calf and a mounted cowboy. The calves are moved through narrow pathways leading to a chute with spring loaded doors. A 28 foot rope is fastened around the calf's neck which is used to ensure that the calf gets a head start. On one side of the chute will be the calf roper who will attempt to rope and tie the calf.

The calf roper is behind a taut rope fastened with an easily broken string which is fastened to the rope on the chute holding the calf. When the roper is ready he calls for the calf and the chute man trips a lever opening the doors. The suddenly freed calf breaks out running. When the calf reaches the rope in front of him, it pops off and simultaneously releases the barrier for the roper. The roper must throw his rope in a loop around the calf's neck.

Once the rope is around the calf's neck, the roper signals the horse to stop suddenly while he simultaneously steps off the horse and runs to the calf. The horse will back away from the calf to maintain a steady pull on the rope. When the roper reaches the calf he picks it up and drops the calf on its side. With calves weighing 200-300 pounds this takes a bit of effort. Once the calf is on the ground the roper ties three of the calf's legs together with a pigging string in a half-hitch knot, referred to colloquially as two wraps and a hooey . The pigging string is clutched between the ropers teeth until he uses it. The roper returns to his horse, mounts and moves the horse forward, releasing the tension on the rope. An official will now time six seconds, during which the calf must stay tied before an official time is recorded. The official time starts when the barrier pulls and ends when the roper finishes tying the calf, usually signaled by the throwing of hands into the air. Just like in the steer wrestling and team roping, if the roper breaks the barrier early, a 10-second penalty will be added to his time. This is sometimes referred to as a "Cowboy Speeding Ticket."

Top professional calf ropers will tie a calf in 6 to 7 seconds.

Cutting is an equestrian event in the western riding style where a horse and rider are judged on their ability to separate a calf away from a cattle herd and keep it away for a short period of time. The sport originally evolved from cattle ranches in the American West, where it was the cutting horse's job to separate cows from the herd for vaccinating, castrating, and sorting. Eventually competitions arose between the best cutting horses and riders in the area. Rules were added, and in 1946 the National Cutting Horse Association was formed, which today is the governing body of the sport.

The horses involved are typically Quarter horses, although other breeds may be used, such as American Paint Horses or Appaloosas. A horse that instinctively knows how to keep a calf from returning to the herd, and is trained in a manner to be shown competitively, is considered a cutting horse .

In the event, the horse and rider select and separate a calf out of a small group. The calf then tries to return to its herdmates; the rider loosens the reins ("puts his hand down" in the parlance) and leaves it entirely to the horse to keep the calf separated, a job the best horses do with relish, savvy, and style. A contestant has 2 1/2 minutes to show his horse; typically three cows are cut during a run, although working only two cows is acceptable. A judge awards points to the cutter based on a scale that ranges from 60 to 80, with 70 being considered average.

Cutting is one of the fastest growing equine sports in the world. In 2006, the contestants at the NCHA Futurity competed for more than $3.7 million--over a hundred times the offering of the first year. Total purses at NCHA-approved shows now exceed $39 million annually, not including prize money distributed at Australian Cutting Horse Association, American Cutting Horse Association, European, and Canadian events.

Rodeo began from the real life tasks of the vaqueros and cowboys of the Americas to gather up cattle for various purposes such as branding, moving them to new pastures, or to market. The term was also used to refer to the sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle ranching , and it is this latter usage which was adopted into the cowboy tradition of the United States and Canada.

While the concept of a Rodeo often conjures up Hollywood movie images of dusty cowboys in rural arenas, the modern professional rodeo is a very different sport. Its long season peaks on the July 4th weekend, but concludes with the world's richest rodeo, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (NFR) in Las Vegas, Nevada in December.

The term rodeo was first used in English approximately 1834 to refer to a cattle round-up. it is derived from the Spanish word rodear, meaning to surround or go around, used to refer to "a pen for cattle at a fair or market," derived from the Latin rota or rotare, meaning to rotate or go around. [1] More Information

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