Thrown by high gas prices

Santa Maria, Calif.

Ask Marv Hurley how many bones he's broken in rodeo and he'll rattle off a list that adds up to almost an entire skeleton: both ankles, both wrists, both feet, his collarbone, every one of his ribs.

But out-of-control gas prices -- now that's a cowboy's nightmare.

"They're killin' me," moaned Hurley, a 50-year-old bareback rider who manages to hang on to bucking broncs for a full eight seconds even with a partly metal pelvis that's held together by screws.

Hurley, who lives in Bakersfield, was one of the 150 or so competitors who showed up at the Santa Maria Elks Rodeo a few weeks ago. But officials said soaring fuel prices had cut entries by about 20% -- about the same as at rodeos all over the West.

Wherever diesel hovers around or above $5 a gallon -- which is almost everywhere -- cowboys are singing the same sad song. Fewer competitors are saddling up, and those who do are staying closer to home. They're hitting fewer towns and are thinking of hanging up their spurs earlier in the season. Some rodeo folks are even squeezing themselves into airline seats because it can be cheaper than driving that long, lonesome highway.

By far the most strapped are those in events such as steer-wrestling and calf-roping, who have to haul their own horses in gas-guzzling truck trailers. Many are doing something never anticipated by Zane Grey in his odes to the lone, wandering heroes of the West: They're rodeo ride-sharing, with half a dozen cowpokes cramming into a truck and splitting fuel bills in the thousands of dollars.

"The sport's doing fine," said Jim Bainbridge, a spokesman for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Assn., pointing out that PRCA-sanctioned rodeos offered more than $40 million in prize money last year. "It's just getting tougher and tougher for guys to get up and down the road."

On the other hand, rodeo operators say, crowds are packing the grandstands, perhaps because gas prices are keeping them close to home. Some rodeos that span several days are adopting tighter schedules that don't require cowboys to make fuel-consuming return trips for later events. A few are even waiving entry fees -- typically from $150 to $500 -- for the competitors.

"A lot of these guys are operating on margins that are razor-thin," Bainbridge said.