Rider Bucks His Way Into Farm Show Competition
Joyce Bupp
York County Correspondent
DOVER (York Co.) Josh
Hoffman hopes to sit out his com
petition at the Farm Show all
16 seconds of it.
Where he wants to stay seated is
in the saddle of the bucking broncs
he’ll ride in two eight-second go
arounds during the Farm Show
rodeo. Hoffman will ride in both
the 2 p.m. and 6 p.m. rodeo rounds
scheduled for Saturday, January 9,
in the large arena.
An 18-year-old senior vo-ag
student at Dover High School,
Hoffman took his first ride into the
rodeo arena after joining the Penn
sylvania High School Rodeo
Association (PHSRA) in late sum
mer. He is the son of Mike and
Jean Hoffman, who raise livestock
and grain on their farm on Davids
burg Road.
“I stayed on for two seconds,”
chuckles the slender, lanky saddle
bronc rider as he recounts his first
ride. “But the fall didn’t hurt as
bad as I thought it would.”
That first tumble off a bucking
rodeo horse was just part of the
training Hoffman received during
his initial rodeo/clinic held in Oc
tober at Wellsville. Rodeos have
held an almost lifelong fascination
for Hoffman since he watched his
first one on television as a child.
His interest deepened recently
while tracking the rodeo activities
of a high school acquaintance.
High School Rodeo Associa
tion competition is a high school
sport, open to students in grades
nine through twelve. Participation
must be approved by the student’s
high school principal and the par
ticipating student must be passing
a minimum of four subjects.
Both Pennsylvania and Ohio
have state associations, which are
affiliated with the national asso
ciation. Pennsylvania has been or
ganized for four years and current
ly has 63 members, according to
state association secretary Susan
Kroll. Students in New Jersey,
New York, Maryland, West Vir
ginia, and Virginia, which do not
have their own associations, also
Designed of heavy nylon materials, the bronc holder is
the halter which IKs on the horse and to which the bronc
rein is fastened. Heavy wool padding on the nose piece'
protects the muzzle of the horse. All rodeo “rigging” is
designed forlhe safety of both rider and mount.
may participate through the
PHSRA.
Fourteen PHSRA-sanctioned
rodeos are held within the state
during the year, usually once
monthly, except in April when
several are scheduled. Participants
can enter one or several of the 10
separate events in a PHSRA rodeo
and earn points that accumulate
through the year. A first place win
earns 10 points, with lesser plac
ings earning fewer points.
Events for girls include barrel
racing, pole bending, goat tying,
and break away roping, while
boys compete in riding bulls, bare
back or saddle bronc horses, calf
roping, and steer wrestling. Both
boys and girls may compete in
team roping.
At the end of the season, par
ticipants with the highest cumu
lative points in each event ride in
the state finals rodeo. State win
ners are then eligible for the na
tional finals in Wyoming.
“It’s a sort of ‘minor league’ for
rodeo competition,” explains
Hoffman.
His first tumble from a real
horse during the two-day rodeo/
clinic at Wellsville came after a
few hours of initial training on a
mechanical bucking machine.
“Horses are easier,” figures
Hoffman. “The machine is a
steady pace, but I haven’t seen
anything to replace the real action
of a horse.” -
Still, the machine taught Hoff
man a lot Saddle bronc riders
must leant to instantly twist and
wedge their legs and feet over and
around the shoulders of the horse
as it leaves the chute, a maneuver
called “marking out.” By properly
leveraging his legs, the bronc rider
tightens his body into the saddle to
better withstand the horse’s efforts
to dislodge him.
‘The saddle is very important,”
emphasizes Hoffman, demonstrat
ing the “marking out” technique
on the floor of the family’s living
room. “It’s the only thing that
keeps you there on the horse.”
Because of the unique purpose
it serves, a bronc saddle is de
signed with the stirrups much far
ther front than those on a western
saddle. Instead of the hom which
protrudes from the top front of a
western saddle, the bronc saddle
has about a three-inch-high pad
ded curb on the top front, known
as the “swell.” This feature also
helps stabilize the rider atop the
bucking horse.
Bronc saddles are “real hard KJ
come by,” according to Hoffman,
who was able to acquire a used
one in good condition. And, be
cause each rider is different in
size, most are custom designed.
New, custom-made bronc saddles
from the most skilled craftsmen
may cost up to $l,OOO.
Given the critical safety role of
the saddle, bronc riders value
them highly and regularly inspect
and replace any weakened leather
parts that might tear under the rid
ing strain. Other “rigging” in
cludes the “bronc holder,” a halter
fashioned from very heavy nylon
with thick, wooly padding on the
nose guard which fits over the
horse’s muzzle.
The “brone rein” is a flexible,
braided, nylon rope of graduated
thickness, slender where it fastens
to’the brone holder and well over
an inch in diameter where the rider
wraps a single hand around it dur
ing the brief competition ride.
Saddle brone riders grip the rein
bare-handed, while bareback and
bull riders wear gloves.
As with any sport, physical fit
ness is imperative for rodeo com
petitors. For brone riders like
Hoffman, leg muscles must be
strong as well as those of the arms
and wrists. While some competi
tors train by weightlifting, Hoff
man stays fit through the normal
work routine on the family farm.
Safety is a continuing empha
sis, for both rider and horse. A
mouthpiece is a required piece of
equipment to protect the rider’s
teeth. Heavy chaps cushion the
legs. Parts of the rigging that make
contact with the horse are all well
padded to protect the horse. And a
pair of pickup men rides alongside
the saddle brone competitor at all
times, one to collect the rider
when his lime elapses or he
falls and the other to instantly
release the bronc’s cinch when the
ride is over.
“What other high school sport
puts you against a 1,500-pound
horse, or an unpredictable bull?”
philosophizes Hoffman. “It makes
a lot more sense to me to compete
with a horse than going head-to
head with another person.
, “Mind control is one of the
most important things in saddle
bronc riding,” he believes. That
includes learning to concentrate
solely on the horse, the upcoming
ride, and blocking out all else
including spectator noise while
waiting for the chute to open and
the ride to begin during rodeo
competition.
“I was very scared, very ner
vous on my first ride,” remembers
Hoffman, adding with a laugh,
“and I didn’t do anything right.”
He climbed back' on a little
later, stayed in the saddle a frac
tion of a second longer, and again
sailed off into the dirt. It was a
harder, more bruising fall. Though
he walked away with no assis
tance, later he could not remember
that his friend had carried the sad
dle for him.
Despite aching muscles and
sore bruises, Hoffman returned for
the second day of the clinic with
no hesitation.
After two more “go ’rounds,”
Hoffman had doubled his saddle
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 9, 1993-B5
Garbed In the . gear .-g .pi e
chaps and colorful shirt, Josh Hoffman Is “uniformed” for
participation In the Farm Show’s only high school sporting
event the rodeo.
rider with one bare hand for the duration of the eight
second ride in rodeo competition.
time to four seconds, gained confi
dence and became visibly more
relaxed to his teaching coach. He
had also learned that he could
climb right back in the saddle after
a fall and build on the lessons
learned each time it happened.
“Mind control,” he says again.
“You have confidence that some
day it will all come together.”
When it does, when a saddle
bronc rider is properly “marking
out,” correctly “screws himself
.into the saddle,” and stays on the
violently gyrating horse for the
full eight seconds, then he has
“covered the horse.”
Two judges score the ride, one
each on the right and on the left;
each tallies a separate numerical
score. While 100 is a perfect
score, only professional rodeo rid
ers are likely to gamer as high as a
combined 85-point average on a
saddle bronc ride.
After high school graduation, a
PHSRA member can finish that
Qfamesiead
trfoics
season of competition, but must
move on to higher professional
levels to continue rodeo participa
tion. East Coast competition is us
ually within the American Profes
sional Rodeo Association, with
events up and down the eastern
seaboard and in Canada.
Westerners are more likely to
compete in the national associa
tion’s events. At a top professional
rodeo, a winning competitor
might earn up to $ll,OOO for plac
ing first in one day’s competition;
a national rodeo might offer. 10
days of competition.
One of Hoffman’s dreams is to
move West, a part of the country
he came to admire and appreciate
during visits there as a child and
again while attending the national
FFA convention in Kansas City.
He would like to eventually con
tinue the family farming and live
stock-production tradition of the
Hoffman family at a western, less
populous location.