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Rodeo pickup horse? how old do i have to be.?

well right now am 13 and in june i will be 14.
i bought a horse that was started as a rodeo pick up horse i want to continue his training but am i to young start in the rodeo?
Are can i do it in the High School rodeo?

You are not to young to start in the rodeo. There are a bunch of events that you can start out in with your horse. Breakaway roping, goat hair pulling, pole bending, barrels and some others.

As far as working as a pickup man:

The pickup man is the bronc riders way of safely getting off of their horse. This is a highly skilled position in the rodeo. This is one that requires the most skills of any employee except for the bullfighters. Watch a rodeo and notice how old the pickup men are. A 13 or 14 year old does not have the weight to have other riders grab a hold of them and hang off the side of the horse without pulling them over the side with them. I have seen some horrible accidents with pick up men. I have seen the owner of a rodeo company as the pick up man pull off a rider behind a horse and the horse kicked the rider in the head. As we watched this person getting carried out unconscious, I thought of how stupid a mistake on the pickup man. It turns out this person was my brother and barely survived. Luckily for the owner/pickup man, my brother and I knew what kind of dangers we were getting involved in when we started rodeoing. A simple mistake by a pickup man does not mean the loss of an event but possibly the loss of life.

I encourage you to ride, ride, ride. Depending on how good of a rider you are, try riding with some friends and ride up to their horse, grab the reigns and lead it around while on your horse. Be EXTREMELY careful because one wrong move of your horse or the other horse and you are getting yanked off the side. This is just a sliver of what being a pickup man is like. Think about doing it fast and with some cowboy hanging off your side!

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