Wild cow milkers try to convince a very discontented cow
that being milked isn’t so bad.
Cowboys behind bars
Professional rodeo clown Ralph Fisher brings along a brace
of “bull-fighting” buzzards as part of his bag of tricks.
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By LEE ROY LESCHPER JR.
They are cowboys.
They sit quietly atop and around
the rodeo chutes. Occasionally they
talk among themselves, low and
slow, or to the too-eager photo
graphers standing in the arena. But
mostly they wait. Wait and watch
the first bulls being loaded into the
bucking chutes. Wait and think ab
out the rides to come.
The action begins with a veng-
ence. First comes the Mad Scram
ble — 10 Brahma bulls released at
the same time, taking their riders on
a mad race across the arena. Three
riders stay aboard, with the first
across the ring earning $40 for his
aches.
Then come bareback bronc and
saddle bronc events, and a wild
horse race where four-man teams
must saddle and then “race” un
broken horses, and another contest
where teams must milk an untamed
cow into a soda bottle.
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Through it all the cowboys stay
somehow aloof — intensely alert
and taut as well-tuned guitar
strings, but with the calm one finds
on the faces of men who challenge
deadly animals and deadly odds on
a Sunday afternoon.
It is also the look of convicts. For
these are not ordinary cowboys.
They are the convict cowboys of the
Texas Department of Corrections’
Prison Rodeo. They are serving
sentences of two years to life for
crimes against the State and its
citizens.
But every Sunday afternoon in
October they are cowboys.
There are rookie cowboys who
look too young to have ever shaved,
but who are old enough to do time in
Texas’ “Big House.”
And there are the “red-shirts”
and “Goree Girls.” The red-shirts
are convicts who didn’t qualify for
bucking stock events. So they are
not given the measure of prestige
the cowboys enjoy. They are “can
non fodder” for the wild cow milking
contest and the Hard Money event.
Hard Money gives them a chance to
snatch $250 in cash tied between
the horns of an enraged Brahma
bull. The bull stomps, hooks and
throws red-shirts right and left.
The Goree Girls are women pris
oners from the Goree prison unit
who add a touch of sex to the show.
Most look very young and very de
humanized in the glaring brightly-
colored shorts and shirts they are
issued for the day. They chase
greased pigs, and then ungreased
but very burly calves around the
arena.
Through the afternoon, the buck
ing bulls and all the rest, the
announcer keeps up a steady chat
ter of redneck convict humor.
“That’s all right, folks,” he chuck
les as one cowboy is thrown by a
bull. “The judge says he’s got 20
more years to come back and try
again.”
When it’s all over and the crowd
heads for the gates and home, the
convicts gather their gear and boots
and hats and slowly file out of the
arena. But today they’re not just
convicts.
They are cowboys.