Ridin' and Wreckin'

Those foolhardy, brave, reckless cowboys and cowgirls who ride the broncs and buckin' bulls. Why do they do it? Is it the thrill? The challenge of human over beast? Is it something in their wrangler genes that makes them itch to be tossed in the air, thrown headlong into the muck, stomped and trampled? Or is it the roar of the crowd that makes each rider settle onto his or her snorting mount and signal one more time to "bust open the chutegate"? Vintage photos of rodeo riders from the 1910s to 1930s, brought to life by artist Bob Wade's stylistic imagination, show the thrills and spills of rodeo. A foreword by six-time World Champion All-Around Cowboy Larry Mahan and an introduction by famous cowboy poet (himself a former rodeo maniac) Paul Zarzyski help answer the questions. They leave no doubt that rodeo gets into the blood - and vice versa.