It wouldn’t seem very wise to leap from a perfectly good horse on to the head of a runaway steer, but leave it to cowboys to not only do it but make a sport out of it. Steer wrestling or bulldogging as it’s more commonly known, is a fast paced, high octane event that if not done just right can led to a mouth full of dirt and a whole lot of hurt pride.
It is unique among the other contests in rodeo in the fact that its origins can be traced backed to one man, Bill Pickett. Pickett first performed the feat in the early 1900s and then went on to showcase his newly found talent with the Miller Brothers’ 101 Ranch Real Wild West show.
Pickett along with other early day bulldoggers used a technique of biting the steer’s upper lip to hold the animal down, a technique that would later be omitted in favor of leverage and brute force.
