This is not your daddy’s rodeo. New replay system helps contestants build better rides
After making a bone-jarring ride on a bronc named Big Star at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo for prize money, Idaho bareback rider Kash Wilson made his way to the contestants’ hospitality room to watch replays of his dramatic spurring performance from a half dozen or so different camera angles.
The Stock Show Rodeo, which concluded its 23-day run on Saturday at Dickies Arena, is the first pro rodeo to offer competitors replays from multiple angles that include a skycam view. Competitors can receive the replays by email or download them on a cellphone.
“It helps a guy, maybe some little things he needs to work on and things to think about in the next ride,” said Wilson, 29, who turned in an 87, the highest bareback score during the Jan. 31 performance. “I analyze my rides a lot in between rodeos. It’s a good way to see what you need to work on. Let’s say you draw those horses again at a rodeo down the road, you’ve got some video on them. It a great deal. This rodeo is awesome. It really has come a long way this year.”
The replay system is called the “DreamCatcher” and it’s used in other sports. Rodeo contestants can watch and evaluate their performances on a large screen TV. The process is similar to a football or basketball player watching game film.
Competitors come away with the rodeo equivalent of a sports game scouting report.
“You can compare it to football, watching your past game films and seeing what you need to work on, or seeing where you slipped and highlighting good things,” Wilson said.
For years, rodeo competitors have watched replays of their rides, but not as vividly and distinctly as the Stock Show is offering. It’s common for a competitor’s spouse to record the performance from the bleachers with video camera or cellphone.
RodeoHouston has provided videos of riders, competitors said. But they say the system that’s been installed in the new Dickies Arena is far more in-depth.
“This is the first for me to come in and get films and watch from all those different angles,” Wilson said. “Other rodeos ... you get lucky most of the time if someone behind the bucking chutes records you or something and it’s a personal video. Half of the time, you’re so busy getting ready that you forget to ask someone to video.”
The system also is used to send replays of Stock Show Rodeo to the news media.
“We’ve gotten rides of contestants and sent it to their hometown television station,” said Susan Kanode, a longtime rodeo publicist who helps handle the Fort Worth Stock Show’s publicity. “We’ve sent it to places such as Billings, Montana, and Twin Falls, Montana.
“In Billings, for example, we have a person who posts our press releases every day on their website. But now, they have a video component that they can add to their news broadcast.”
In Fort Worth, competitors have been either watching a past ride or examining the past performance of a bronc, bull, calf or steer that they will soon face, knowing that rodeo livestock tend to be creatures of habit and predicable.
Marcos Costa, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association’s 2017 world tie-down roping champion who is from Menard, watched a previous roper make a run on the same calf he would face during the Feb. 1 performance and learned from watching replays that the animal was cantankerous. He observed that fellow competitor Cody McCartney, a roper from Michigan, had drawn the calf the night before and had turned in a sub-par time of 12.3 seconds.
“She kicked once,” Costa said from watching McCartney’s run. “I hope that she will be better today. I’ve got to be ready for her.”
Costa turned in a no time. However, he had finished in the money the previous night with a time of 9.8. “If you miss a chance to see what you’ve drawn [in person], you can just run that tape and see,” he said. “This technology helps a lot. You don’t have to guess. You have an idea what your calf will do.”
Meanwhile, two-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier Jackie Ganter watched her prize-winning barrel racing run Jan. 31 on the replay system.
“I always watch my videos and usually they are taken from an iPhone from the stands,” Ganter said. “It’s less quality and farther away. You can still see and it’s not as up close and not as crystal clear as these videos.
“To see the small details is making a difference. To be getting these videos for free, what a nice thing to do. I’ve never seen this before. ... It’s incredible. ”
Barrel racer Ivy Hurst, a Springer, Oklahoma, cowgirl who also finished in the money on Jan. 31, said she was grateful.
“Being able to see your hands, the horse’s feet — it’s winter rodeo season and we have to be as sharp as we can to move from one rodeo and do our best,” Hurst said. “So, being able to see all that, like a football player, kind of can help keep us stay on top of our game.”
Four-time National Finals barrel racing qualifier Stevi Hillman of Weatherford said: “It definitely makes you feel like you are a professional athlete here. We’re so thankful. All of the extra stuff ... really makes it nice.”