There's a new element to the sad country song that is a rodeo cowboy's life. Now, in addition to the raging bulls, lonely nights and lingering bruises, they face the additional burden of high gas prices.
Fuel costs hovering around US$0.80 per liter are wreaking havoc on the wallets of rodeo cowboys, who often drive hundreds of kilometers each day in beefy pickup trucks pulling horse trailers to get to the next go-round.
The image of the solitary cowboy traveling back roads may be an archetype of the modern West, but it is quickly going the way of the buffalo. These days, a rodeo cowboy is likely to share a gas-sipping economy car with three or four others.
"Hell yes!" said Fred Boettcher, a top professional bull rider, when asked if gasoline prices were affecting his season.
Scrambling to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, Nevada, Boettcher these days often parks his pickup truck and flies or drives rental economy cars to far-flung rodeos.
"I travel with lots of people," Boettcher said. "The more the better."
While gas prices have retreated to about US$0.69 per liter in much of the US, prices are higher in eight Western states. Spokane, Washington drivers are paying US$0.81 cents per liter.
Bull rider Bret Summers of Spokane competes mostly in the Northwest, but that doesn't help his bottom line much. One recent weekend he drove from Spokane to Monroe, Washington, up to Winthrop near the Canadian border, down to Kamiah, Idaho and then home.
That was 1,900km in a Dodge Ram pickup that guzzles 23.5 liters per 100km. Summers does all this to hang onto a bull for 8 seconds and look good enough doing it to win some prize money.
The reason: He's 13th in bull riding in the Pro West rodeo association and only the top 12 qualify for the Pro West Finals in Omak, Washington, at the end of this month.
In his first season on the rodeo circuit, Summers, 23, figures he's broken even on entry fees with US$1,400 in winnings. Travel costs come out of his earnings at a construction job. He tries to shave those costs by packing up to seven people into his truck for trips to rodeos.
"You scrunch up as much as possible," he said.
In the past, gas prices didn't matter much when a cowboy was planning a weekend trip to a series of rodeos. Now they do.
"If you win first and can't cover your expenses, is it worth going?" said Jeanne Benson of Laurel, Montana. Benson is the editor of Cowboy's Digest, a publication of rodeo results and news that comes out twice each month.
"That was not a factor a couple of years ago," he says.
Benson's husband, Bill, is a team roper. They travel to rodeos together with their daughter. Their truck pulls a trailer for two horses that also includes sleeping quarters for the family
The rig consumes 21 liters per 100km, not all that much when you consider that over the Labor Day weekend they traveled to rodeos scattered across the Montana towns of Hamilton, Plains, White Sulphur Springs, Helmville and Dillon.
The towns are located hundreds of kilometers apart, although that is considered close by the standards of Big Sky Country.
Along with gas and living expenses, each rodeo costs some US$100 to enter. It's no wonder that Bill Benson works for the state highway department when not at rodeos.
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