Rodeos in Texas are adrenalin-pumping, high-energy events that blend excitement and entertainment. For the Champion family, they are something much more — a source of income and a way of life.
For five generations, the Champions, a family of livestock contractors who hail from Buffalo, Texas, have provided their animals to rodeos across the country, including the upcoming rodeo series for the State Fair of Texas, which begins its annual season on Sept. 26. Their animals will compete in all four weekends of the fair.
The rodeo is a huge draw for fair patrons, with Texas-OU weekend pulling the biggest crowd, but it is not without its critics.
Bob Champion, CEO of Champion Rodeo Co., enshrined the family’s love of rodeo in his children’s names — National Champion and Ima Champion. National continued the tradition with his sons Reinen, Ropen and Ryden Champion. National said he hopes his sons — who are fifth generation Champions — will continue the family tradition.
During interviews from their sprawling Central Texas ranch, family members spoke recently about their love of their animals and the sport as the upcoming high-stakes competition in Dallas nears.
Rodeoing and the stock contracting business both take experience, time and dedication.
“That’s what we teach here at Champion Rodeo Company,” National said, “to respect others, treat others as you want to be treated and treat your animals well.”
Mark of a ‘Champion’
The Champions have been in the rodeo stock business since 1969 when National’s grandfather established the company.
Bob, 59, manages the business now and National does a little bit of everything to assist his father in keeping the company running.
“This is just all I’ve ever known, all I’ve ever done,” National said. “I just feel like God’s blessed me with this life, and this is where I’m set to be.”
National, 34, used to compete in rodeo competitions, such as team roping and steer wrestling, he said, but now it’s just his sons who compete. Between the boys competing and National and his family hosting and attending rodeos, he said they only get about 10-12 weekends off in a year.
“[Rodeo is] a tough lifestyle, but I don’t know anything different,” he said. “I was raised in it, so it’s part of my identity. It’s who I am.”
National works as a cowboy as well, he said, hiring himself out to different ranches for a day, a week or longer. He’s taken different ranch jobs since he graduated from college, but he said something about the rodeo and the family business keeps calling him back and he listens.
The Champion family raises calves, cows, goats, sheep, steers, horses and bulls for rodeos. The animals live at three locations that are roughly halfway between Dallas and Houston: the 200-acre Champion ranch in Buffalo; an 80-acre ranch in Mexia, where National and his family live; and a ranch in Donie, which belongs to the family’s longtime friend Benton Gonzales.
The family and their animals compete in up to 200 rodeos each year, and no two days or shows are ever the same, National said. That’s what he loves most about rodeo.
“Anytime you put man against beast,” he said, “it’s exciting.”
The pre-game
For stock contractors, most of their preparation for rodeos focuses on caring for their animals, prioritizing their well-being and transporting them, National said.
Formal training for the animals is not necessary for rodeo, he said, because most of what they do in the competitions, such as bucking, is instinctive. Rodeo riders typically don’t have much contact with the animals until the event begins.
There’s no way to really train them, National said, because the “animal is going to do what the animal wants to do.” He said the most stock contractors will do is domesticate the animals and get them used to a routine before a trip and show.
On a late August morning, National, Bob, Benton and a family friend gathered at the family ranch in Buffalo to ready their bulls, steers and horses for a rodeo in Mount Vernon.
First, the horses were fed a special feed that is packed with protein. The steers had also been fed the same type of feed earlier that morning, and the bulls had a commodity mix feed, which is a blend of different ingredients suited for various kinds of livestock.
After breakfast, about 65 horses roamed the green pastures at the Buffalo ranch, while the bulls and steers stayed in pens. Bellowing and whinnying could be heard from all directions.
Then it was time for the six-hour ordeal of loading up the trailers with bulls, horses and steers.
A larger trailer arrived at the ranch to pick up the bulls. There were about a dozen of them, and a flimsy flag whip was used to get their attention and herd them into the trailer. Considering that some of the bulls were being stubborn and not wanting to follow instructions, the process went rather quickly and finished in about a half hour.
The horses took a little longer, because there were more of them, they had to be sorted and some of them were mulish. The sorting took the longest, because only about half of the 65 horses were going to the show in Mount Vernon.
National mounted his riding horse and entered the horses’ pens to start the sorting.
The pens were used for holding the bulls and sorting the horses. They are divided into three parts, with a pathway that leads directly into the trailer. The sorting was done in smaller groups, so National and his aide moved about 10 horses into the larger pen before sliding the gate shut.
Then, National, who was saddled up on his own horse, would communicate back and forth with Bob outside of the pen to determine which of the horses were staying back and which ones were headed to Mount Vernon for the weekend – all while simultaneously corralling the horses.
From the outside, it looked chaotic. Dirt flew. Hooves thumped. There was a blur of movement. Some of the horses that were staying wanted to go, and some of the horses that were going refused to be loaded. It was like wrangling a room full of toddlers that had had too much candy.
“We’ve got horses here, they will literally get upset whenever they don’t get to go to the rodeo,” National said. “They’ll want to go to the rodeo.”
National said they consider a few factors when picking which horses will go to the rodeo. The ones that stay back typically need rest because they performed in the weeks prior or are injured and need time to recover.
The steers were loaded after the horses, and it went quickly compared to loading time for the horses and more aggressive bulls. Steers, or castrated bulls, are used for steer wrestling, roping and riding events at rodeos.
After all of the livestock were loaded that day, the family and their animals were off to the rodeo, which was set to begin the following day.
Health and welfare of animals in rodeos
While the Champions and many others love the rodeo, the sport is not without its critics. Animal advocates have raised concerns about the welfare of rodeo animals.
National argues the opposite — that rodeos give animals life and purpose.
“There’s so many things that rodeo does to give these animals life — give these animals a purpose here, other than just being meat or food,” he said.
National said his animals often eat before he does and go to the vet way more than any of the family visit doctors. He said the safety and health of their animals are a top priority.
“If an animal gets hurt at competition within, I mean, minutes, they are being seen by a veterinarian,” National said. “That is very important to us, because we want that animal to be as happy and as healthy and as safe as he or she can be.”
Data regarding the number of injuries and deaths of rodeo animals in Texas is not widely available.
However, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association has “more than 60 rules to ensure the proper care and treatment of rodeo animals included in its official rules and regulations,” according to its website. They include include:
Having a veterinarian on-site at all PRCA-sanctioned rodeos.
Inspecting and evaluating for illness, weight, eyesight and injury prior to the rodeo.
Barring from competition animals that are sore, lame, sick or injured.
Limiting the use of standard electric prods.
Prohibiting the use of stimulants and hypnotics to improve performance.
Still, animal injuries are inevitable as rodeo — calf roping, steer wrestling, bull riding and so much more — is a physically demanding sport and the animals, according to industry officials, are considered athletes.
For critics, it illustrates cruelty and mistreatment.
The founder and president of SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK), Steve Hindi, believes many of the PRCA’s rules are “for show,” and animals are being purposely hurt and abused. He said if the public knew what happens to animals to put on a rodeo, “they wouldn’t stand for it.”
Hindi said some of the animals in rodeos are sometimes drugged and electrocuted to enhance their performances, and the actual amount and extent of injuries are covered up by people in the industry.
“Nobody knows — at least nobody who’s not in the rodeo industry and deep in the rodeo industry — nobody knows the price that these animals really pay for rodeo,” he said.
Hindi acknowledged a lot of people involved in rodeos do care about their animals and try to take good care of them, especially if they’re not just in it for the money.
“And the stock contractors, I think that they’re doing what they can,” Hindi said. “When I’m watching a PRCA rodeo, or almost any other sanctioned rodeo, those animals — they’re feeding them well, I think they’ve got vets checking them out.”
National said there are people in rodeo who do wrong, but most do right by their animals.
“There are people in this world that are bad, that’s proven. There are people in this world that do wrong, but I’m going to say 85% of people in this world really intend to do right,” he said. “We try to take care of [our animals] the very best that we can.”
