Steer Wrestling: How Bulldogging Works and Why the Hazer Matters
Published
- 1Chute
- 2Barrier
- 3The steer
- 4The wrestler drops from the horse
- 5The hazer holds it straight
Steer wrestling, or bulldogging, is the shortest event of the evening and the one most likely to be over before a spectator has worked out what happened.
What happens
A steer is released ahead of a barrier. The wrestler rides after it, comes alongside, and drops from a running horse onto the animal, taking it by the horns. The task is to turn it and put it on its side. The clock stops when the steer is down with its head and all four feet pointing the same way.
Good runs come in under five seconds. Very good ones are closer to three.
The hazer
There are two riders in every run, and only one of them scores. The hazer rides on the far side of the steer to keep it running straight.
That job decides whether the run is possible at all. A steer left to itself veers away from the horse coming up beside it, and if it does, the wrestler never gets into position. The hazer is usually another competitor doing it as a favor, which means the field routinely helps each other run.
The barrier
The steer gets a head start, marked by a barrier the wrestler’s horse must not break early. Breaking it adds ten seconds, which in an event decided in three or four is simply the end of the run.
Why the times are so short
Steer wrestling is over faster than anything else on the card, and the reason is that almost nothing has to happen for it to be complete. There is no pattern to run and no eight seconds to survive. The steer is released, the wrestler catches it, and it goes down.
The consequence is that mistakes are absolute. A missed catch is not a slow run, it is no run at all, because there is no realistic way to recover a steer that has been passed. Competitors go for the catch on the first attempt every time because a second attempt does not exist.
When the clock actually stops
The flag does not come at the tackle. The steer has to be brought down and settled with all four legs pointing the same way, and until that is true the run is still going. It is a rule that occasionally costs a wrestler a fast time when an animal comes down awkwardly and has to be turned again, and it is the reason the crowd’s reaction sometimes precedes the flag by a second.
The event has an inventor
Steer wrestling is the only event on the card that can be traced to one man. Bill Pickett, a Black cowboy who spent a quarter of a century with the Miller Brothers’ 101 Ranch Wild West show, worked out the technique and turned it into an act, and the arena word for it, bulldogging, comes from his method, not from ranch practice. Nothing on a working ranch ever required a man to jump off a running horse onto a steer’s horns.
The horses
Both horses in a steer wrestling run are specialists. The wrestler’s horse must run flat out alongside a steer and then hold absolutely steady as the rider leaves the saddle, and the hazer’s must stay tight on the far side without crowding. Neither is a natural behavior, and both take years to build.
It is also the event with the shortest career expectancy for a reason visible from the stands. Everything about it is a controlled collision at speed, taken side-on, by a competitor who has left a moving horse to make it. Nothing else on the card asks a body to do that repeatedly.
Common questions
What is bulldogging?
Another name for steer wrestling. The competitor rides alongside a running steer, drops from the horse, takes the animal by the horns and turns it onto its side. The clock stops when it is down.
What does the hazer do in steer wrestling?
Rides the far side of the steer to hold it on a straight line. The hazer never touches the animal and earns no score, but without one there is no catch to make.
When does the clock stop in steer wrestling?
Later than most people assume. The flag comes only once the animal is down and settled with all four legs the same way, which occasionally costs a fast time.
Who invented steer wrestling?
Bill Pickett, a Black cowboy who spent a quarter of a century with the Miller Brothers' 101 Ranch Wild West show. He worked out the technique and turned it into an act; nothing on a working ranch ever required it.