Suggested Methods

1. Watch the video segment on the rodeo. Afterward, have students discuss their impressions of the rodeo.
   
2. Review the “history” of the Sidney rodeo offered by Donna Glenn in the video. What sort of celebration preceded the rodeo in Sidney? How did the rodeo begin? Why has it become so popular? How does it benefit the local community?
   
3. Distribute the handout that duplicates a program given out at the Sidney Rodeo. Have students identify the skills called for in the various competitive events. Discuss the relationship between modern rodeo skills and the skills cowboys needed to do their job historically.
   
4. An author has written that cowboys see themselves as constantly at war with “the wild.” “Cowboys express the essence of the West,” and symbolize for the world this country’s westward expansion, and even America itself.
   
   Discuss with students whether they think this is accurate. Are cowboys and cowgirls acting out their role as tamers in rodeo events? How does this relate to life nowadays in Iowa?
   
5. Distribute the cowboy poem “Wet Saddle Blankets,” written by cowboy/country poet Glenda Farrier.

Student Activity

1. Have students read the poem. What does Glenda Farrier think about the wild and the tame in modern life? (Note: Horses just being trained need a lot of riding to learn. When you have a good workout with your horse, he will usually sweat, which will make his saddle blanket wet. When someone says a horse needs “more wet saddle blankets” it just means he needs more work or more riding.)

HIGH SCHOOL ADDITIONS:

1. Have students write their own cowboy poem.
   
2. Ask students to consider how our contemporary life might be portrayed a century from now in some type of rodeo-like event. What might be the skill demonstrations? What types of concepts and values would be memorialized in the event?

Student/Senior Citizen Exchange

Have seniors talk about the treatment and conceptualization of animals in their youth. What kind of events and occurences happened when they were young? Which ones are not likely to happen nowadays? Are there changes in the treatment of animals? In our conception of the relationship between people and animals? What do various animals now symbolize in our way of life?

		Photo
		LESSON 1.6
	Girls’ barrel racer Latona Lord performs at the 1995 Sidney Champonship Rodeo. Is the act of taming nature any different for males and females?
				PHOTO BY JAMES SVOBODA, JJJ PHOTO