Performance Events:

Bareback Bronc Riding
'07 Stampede Champion: (tie) Will Lowe, Ryan Grey, and Bobby Mote

Bareback bronc riding is one of rodeo's most exciting and spectacular events. During an eight-second ride, a cowboy has only a single-hand rigging to hold on to. The leather or rawhide rigging, with its suitcase-like handle, fits over the horse's back and is held in place with a cinch and latigo around the animal's girth. The cowboy starts the ride with his feet placed over the break of the horse's shoulders. If his feet are not in the correct position when the horse hits the ground on its first jump out of the chute, the cowboy has failed to properly mark out the horse and is disqualified and given no score. He is disqualified if he touches the equipment, himself or the animal with his free hand. Points are awarded on the turnout of the rider's toes, the proficiency of the spurring motion and the cowboy's control of the ride plus the bucking of the horse.

A contestant's timing and strength are vital in maintaining a controlled ride. As the horse bucks, the rider jerks his knees upward, running his spurs up the animal's shoulders. As the horse comes back down, the cowboy straightens his legs so that his spurs are again over the horse's shoulders as its front feet hit the ground. Timing and strength are key factors to spectacular spurring and a high scoring ride. A typical winning ride can be in the 80's.

Bareback bronc riding made its debut as a standard rodeo event in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association in the 1950's but it was seen in the rodeo arena much earlier than that. Early Nampa newspapers first mentioned it as a Snake River Stampede event in 1945.