Quote:
Originally Posted by kunkstyle
Serious question as I have never watched chuckwagons: What makes it any more barbaric than any other form of horse racing? Animal injuries more common?
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When one goes down, they all go down, and hundreds of pounds of wood and steel crush their legs.
Yes horse racing has the odd broken leg fatality, but Chucks amplify the problem to a ridiculous level. Every year there seems to be multiple horse fatalities at the Rangeland derby. I wish there was a year by year chart I could find. But I do remember 3 going down at the centennial. I quit going to the Stampede in the early 2000's after I watched a wreck from the stands that killed a few horses.
I am all for celebrating western heritage. Cool, neato, and all that jazz. But to me, they should be looking for a proactive way to phase out the 'bad' events. People will still go without the rodeo. The grand stand show is amazing in itself. Maybe instead of the rodeo, book the absolute top headlining Country acts in the world, and have the worlds greatest week and a half long country music concert. Not my cup of tea, but I would bet there are far more country music fans than rodeo fans out there. 4 hours of superstars, every single night. It will probably fill more seats than the rodeo. And bring in more people from across the globe.