‘It’s not how you look; it’s what you do.’ Western Canadian Barrel Racers, Rodeo Legitimacy and Femininity

Abstract

Rodeo’s historical links to rural settler communities, ranching and cow herding traditions permeate the embodiment of the ‘legitimate’ barrel racing sportswoman in Western Canada. Ladies’ barrel racing is the only competition exclusive to women within Western Canada’s professional rodeos. Barrel racers’ gender performances are thus on display within a sex-integrated context where women continually defend their athletic legitimacy while maintaining a certain brand of femininity that distinguishes them from rodeo cowboys, but also from other rodeo cowgirls. Showcasing the results of in-depth qualitative interviews with fourteen barrel racers from southern Saskatchewan and Alberta, our discourse analysis shows that ‘legitimate’ barrel racers claimed to be disciplined in ways that set them apart from other cowgirls, whether groupies, other barrel racers or rodeo queens, through dividing practices such as upholding moral expectations at rodeo parties, wearing plain rodeo attire and dedication to horse care and skilled riding.

Notes

1. Ladies Barrel Racing is the single event for women in Canadian professional rodeo. In this competition, three empty oil barrels are arranged in a triangle in the arena. The horse and rider must cross the score line and the rider directs her horse to either the left or right closest barrel and continues in a clover-leaf pattern around all three barrels. Should the horse and rider tip a barrel over, five additional seconds are added to her time. The rider may prevent a barrel from falling, from the riding position, with her hand. The goal is to cross the score line with the fastest time measured within hundredths of a second. The six other CPRA events are targeted to male competitors and include saddle bronc riding, bareback riding, bull riding, tie down roping, steer wrestling and team roping. For more details, see the CPRA website: http://www.rodeocanada.com/rodeo_event_descriptions.htm.

2. Rodeos sanctioned by the CPRA range from small-town events for crowds of a few hundred spectators to the famous and large Calgary Stampede where contestants compete in front of over 20 000 spectators (See http://www.calgarystampede.com/). The CPRA sanctions up to 62 rodeos a year and represents about 1400 members who have earned at least $1000 in one rodeo season. (See http://www.rodeocanada.com/association.htm).

3. The term ‘First Nations’ refers to the Native peoples of Canada, also identified in the sport studies literature as Aboriginal peoples or Aboriginal Canadians.

4. Western pleasure is an event in the Western performance category of equine competitions in Canada. This event focuses on the horse’s performance of the walk, western trot (jog) and western canter (lope) gaits in a quiet and pleasurable manner.