History of rodeo tracks the lineage of modern Western rodeo.
Early history of rodeo
Rodeo was the Mexican procedure used to select animals from the herds. The rodeo consisted of herding cattle from the places where they grazed and concentrating them at a certain point to separate their own from others, sort and brand them, as well as to get them used to the presence of humans and prevent them from becoming too wild. The word rodeo, besides designating the action of encircling the cattle, also designates the site itself where the cattle will be placed and the cattle itself; therefore rodeo also signifies the cattle that have already been subjected to the rodeo. In other words, it refers to them being tamed. In its most primitive original form, the rodeo was meant to enclose wild cattle, prevent them from running amok and cause destruction, prevent them from going wild again by accustoming them to the presence of humans and protect them from cattle rustlers. The rodeo becomes the cattle's natural home in the wild.
The first rodeo ordinance was passed and implemented by Viceroy Luís de Velasco on October 16, 1551, but only for the Toluca Valley and surrounding areas in Central Mexico. Faced with the rapid increase of cattle, the indigenous people who were being affected complained. Viceroy Velasco received the news that the crops of the natives of the towns of the Matlatzinco Valley (today the Valley of Toluca) had been affected by the cattle and ordered that no more animals be kept on the ranch than could be sustained on their own on the granted lands. In turn, he ordered that there be enough vaqueros to carry out periodic rodeos and prevent cattle from invading the crops. The ordinance stated:
"That the owners of the ranches be ordered and be forced to have, with every two thousand cows, one Spanish guard and four Black or Indian Vaqueros, two on horseback and the other two on foot, so that they can collect and round up the said cattle on the ranch one day in each week, under penalty of twenty gold pesos for each time they do not, and find themselves without the said people and guard."
The rodeo was a success because as time went on, the vaqueros, estancieros and cattle barons noticed that it made ranching and cattle management much easier. They could perform all the necessary work, like branding, on a large portion of the cattle without actually moving the cattle into a corral; it could all be done on site. They could also use the rodeo as a way to sort out the cattle belonging to other cattle barons, as there was no other way to know their owner. By the 1570s the rodeo was used not only to try and tame the cattle, but also to perform all necessary duties such as sorting, branding, curing, castration, and slaughter.
The second rodeo law was passed by Viceroy Martín Enríquez de Almanza for all cattle ranching regions in the country, on January 25, 1574: "That in each cattle , from the day of San Juan in June until the middle of November of each year, in each week, in the areas and places that by said justice they are commanded and appointed, they be forced to do a rodeo of the cattle and horses. And all the others from the other regional cattle where it would be convenient to make such a rodeo, are forced to come out, and help do the rodeo, so that each one can take out the cattle that bears their brand and take it back to their . As the said rodeo is occurring, by law, between the , under penalty of doing the opposite: being Spanish or mestizo, ten pesos of common gold, applied according to Mesta ordinances; and being black, mulatto, or quadroon, they shall be given a hundred lashes".