Coffee Table Book of: Rodeo (Hardcover)

Description

Coffee Table Book of: Rodeo is a large format book of rodeo, printed edge to edge in colour, one picture to a page and the widest carried across two: the saddle and the rope, the chutes, barrels and raked dirt of the arena, the barns, corrals and open range around it, the gear being made and cared for, the early days of the sport, calm horses at rest, and a few riders seen far off in plain dark clothing.

The kit is laid out plain: a roping saddle on its stand and its horn wrapped in rubber with a rope turned round it, a stiff rope in neat coils and another looped over a fence post, spurs with small rowels, tall riding boots, a felt hat set crown down, batwing chaps with long fringe, a riding glove beside a lump of rosin, a bull rope with its bell, a padded vest, a bridle and bit, a silver belt buckle, a rope halter, a silk scarf knotted round a post, a white flag, a straw bale roping dummy, and racing barrels, one close, three in a triangle and one alone at dusk.

The making and care follow the bare frame of a saddle, rawhide braided into rope, a seam stitched with two needles, leather carved with leaves and flowers, an anvil with new horseshoes, hay stacked in a loft, a frozen trough, and the arena dirt raked by hand, watered and dragged smooth. The past runs from old woolly chaps, a worn old saddle, saddlebags, a hooded stirrup and a rawhide rope to a horseshoe over a barn door, old wooden chutes and bleachers, a chuck wagon at sunset, a hitching rail in an old cattle town and wagon ruts across the grass.

Short notes run through the book, on the riding and roping events and their rules, the saddles, ropes and gear and how they are made, and the history of the sport: summer rodeos often begin in the cool of the evening and run on under the lights, before the rodeo, the stock waits in pens behind the chutes, floral patterns are cut into damp leather with a swivel knife, then pressed in with small steel tools, and team ropers wrap the horn in rubber and take a quick turn round it, called a dally.

Printed in full colour on heavy 150gsm coated paper at 216 x 279 mm (8.5 x 11 inches), as a hardcover with the art printed on the case.