Rodeos Care For Their Livestock

We all know that livestock need to eat, but how do you make sure you have enough feed for them while you’re on the road? How do you keep animals comfortable on the road when traveling a lot? These are many questions of concern for rodeos all over.

Jake Morehead with the Three Hills rodeo, shares more on how they take care of their livestock as they travel to different rodeos.

Three Hills Rodeo bulls eat about 15 pounds of feed a day, horses eat about 8 and then they both consume about 25 pound of hay. This differs when they are at the livestock are on pasture and will get grass as well which changes the amount of hay they eat a day.

“We like alpha grass mix hay for the animals, and we just trust them to have good feed for the stock so they can have a good performance,” says Morehead.

The animals are their livelihood, so having them comfortable is priority one for them. They work hard to keep trailers clean and bedded and make sure they aren’t being overloaded. While fuel prices don’t help their travel costs, they will not stop doing what they love.

Rodeo contestants are getting harder to come by, however the Three Hills Rodeo has a program called the Free Ride Program. They sign up five permit cowboys in each event and pay the entry fees at all of the rodeos. This is their way of getting enough contestants for each event but also encouraging people to be interested in rodeo.

Morehead added that they raise and breed all of their own animals. They may buy a mare every so often if needed, but most of their animals have the same bloodlines in their business. These animals are kept healthy with regular vet checks and treated with the utmost care.

“We have to bring health papers everywhere we go. Most businesses don’t have to pack up the critters and head out of state or anything. Every state has different rules so we have to think of many things that the average businessman wouldn’t have to,” adds Moorhead.

“It’s a hard way to make an easy living, but it’s a lifestyle that we wouldn’t know what to do without it,” says Moorhead. “We like to farm, but we’re better at doing rodeo, so that’s what we do.”