The Father of Bareback Riding

The Father of Bareback Riding

Susan Allen
Susan Allen

 

In my humble opinion one of the toughest events in rodeo has to be bareback riding. But it’s quite tame today compared to earlier eras and it took a tough cowboy full of ideas to create this rodeo event. I’m Susan Allen stay tuned for OpenRange.  Here in the Nortwest, college rodeo struggles to find enough  cowboys who want to compete in  bareback, probably  because it is so brutal, yet compared to the how they rode in the 1920’s it should be  piece of cake! Maybe young men just aren’t as tough as the Bascom brothers from Alberta were back then. Especially Earl  whoses resume included; bronc buster, cowpuncher, trail driver, blacksmith, stagecoach driver, sheep herder sheep shearer, trapper, wolf hunter, wild horse chaser, rodeo champion, cattle rancher, dude wrangler and, finally, Hollywood movie actor playing along side Roy Rogers. Oops I forgot to add... famous, very famous  cowboy artist.  Earl Bascom revolutionized bareback riding  by designing the first one hand bareback rigging. Until Bascom’s invention cowboys often what they called  used two hand “ mane hold”,   grabbing for dear life the broncs mane.  Bascom introduced his leather one hand contraption at an  Alberta rodeo  in 1924. The Bascom Rigging became the prototype of all modern day bareback riggings. Today our  National High School Rodeo Association gives the Earl W. Bascom Award for the saddle bronc and bareback events at their annual High School Finals Rodeo to honor the man known as  the father of bareback riding. I’m Susan Allen  
 
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