Lakota Bird eases her horse into position on the right side of the chute at the far end of the arena. She holds her lasso up over her shoulder, eyes locked on the waiting calf. She nods her head, and the gate of the chute flies opens.
The calf careens into the arena. Bird races after it atop her sorrel horse Fifty. Her long blonde hair streams out from under her black cowboy hat as she swings her lasso high over her head.
After three swings, she throws, and the loop glides over the calf’s head and settles around its neck. She drops her rope and yanks back on the reins, pulling her horse to a halt as the calf darts away. The rope breaks free of her saddle horn where it was tied by a thin piece of string and hits the dirt.
This is breakaway roping, the newest event, and one of just two events that are reserved for women in professional rodeo.
In two and a half seconds, Bird’s second run at the 2024 Canadian Finals Rodeo is over.
The CFR is the championship rodeo for the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association, held every October in Edmonton. The event only began to include breakaway roping in 2021, giving the top 12 ropers in the CPRA the opportunity to show off their skills for 45,000 fans.
Some major rodeos are waking up to the opportunity to showcase breakaway roping.
The Calgary Stampede, Canada’s best known Western event, announced earlier this year that breakaway roping would be included in its main rodeo lineup and offer the same prize money as the other main events, with a total of $310,250 to be awarded over ten days of competition. The first pool of competitors was scheduled to compete on July 4, the Stampede’s opening day, and events continue through July 12.
This is the first time the Calgary Stampede has added a new event since barrel racing was included in 1979. The addition represents a commitment to celebrating diversity in Western sport, according to a press release from the Calgary Stampede.
“Showcasing our members in Barrel Racing and now Breakaway Roping in 2025 and beyond reflects our shared conviction of the importance of providing equal opportunity for women in rodeo,” said Heidi Schmidt, president of the Women’s Professional Rodeo Association, in a press release from the Calgary Stampede.
‘Showcasing our members in Barrel Racing and now Breakaway Roping in 2025 and beyond reflects our shared conviction of the importance of providing equal opportunity for women in rodeo.’
— Heidi Schmidt, president, Women’s Professional Rodeo Association
Bird is one of a growing number of women striving to break into the typically male-dominated sport of professional rodeo.
This comes at a time when women’s sports are coming into their own the professional level.
Professional women’s sports like hockey, soccer, and basketball are rapidly growing in popularity. According to a 2024 survey by Parity, an American organization that helps brands invest in women athletes, 73 per cent of consumers from seven different countries now watch women’s sports at least a few times a year.
In the U.S., breakaway roping has blown up in recent years, bringing new competitors, sponsors, and fans to the sport of rodeo. In 2020, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association sanctioned just 53 rodeos featuring breakaway roping; by 2024 that number had soared to 500.
The American Rodeo, the highest paying single-day rodeo in North America first included breakaway roping in 2019. Attended by roughly 40,000 people annually in Arlington, Texas, it was one of the first to offer breakaway ropers the same prize money as the competitors in all other major events.
Progress has been slower in Canada. Inspired by the change in the American PRCA, Bird, a breakaway roper from Nanton, Alta, began campaigning for the CPRA to include breakaway roping in 2021.
“We called a few committees and started asking them to have breakaway roping. My dad is a stock contractor, so he donated the cattle to a lot of the rodeos to get them to have it the first year,” Bird said.
Breakaway roping was featured in just half of the CPRA rodeos in 2021, according to Bird. By 2024, 46 of the 59 rodeos sanctioned by the CPRA featured breakaway roping.
Now Bird serves as the CPRA’s breakaway roping director, representing the interests of over 80 professional breakaway ropers across Canada.
“It’s been an asset to the organization, bringing in new memberships, new fans and bringing recognition to the CPRA,” Bird said.
Although roping events have been traditionally dominated by men, advocates for breakaway roping argue that women are just as capable of putting on a good show.
“People need to realize that the caliber is just as good as the boys, and that we do deserve the same respect as the boys, and the same opportunities, and the same money, and the same everything,” said Jill Switzer, the breakaway roping director for the Canadian Cowboys Association, a semi-professional rodeo association based in Regina, Sask. that approves rodeos across Western Canada.
Even so, advocates for the event still face challenges in securing the funding and recognition in the male-dominated world of pro rodeo, on both sides of the border.
Rodeo committees struggle to come up with the additional money and space to accommodate another event on top of the seven ones that are already mainstays in professional rodeo, said Libby Winchell, the women’s college rodeo coach at Casper College in Wyoming.
‘People need to realize that the caliber is just as good as the boys, and that we do deserve the same respect as the boys, and the same opportunities, and the same money, and the same everything.’
— Jill Switzer, director of breakaway roping, Canadian Cowboys Association
“People, they love breakaway roping right, but they never see the behind-the-scenes deal. They don’t see… how much it’s really costing to put on all that stuff,” she noted.
Women remain relegated to the sidelines at some of the sport’s most prestigious events, such as the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, the biggest rodeo championship in the U.S. Held in the Thomas & Mack Arena in Las Vegas, the 10-day annual event draws some 170,000 fans, who turn out to see the top 15 athletes in each of the seven events – bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, steer wrestling, team roping, tie down roping, and barrel racing.
Of these, only one – barrel racing – includes women, and breakaway roping is not included at all.
Instead, breakaway ropers have their own championship, the Wrangler National Finals Breakaway Roping, which takes place at a separate, smaller venue in Las Vegas, over two days in December.
Paul Woody, the chief marketing officer of the PRCA, said there just isn’t enough space or funding to make breakaway roping part of the finals at the Thomas & Mack Arena. The venue doesn’t have enough stall space for the livestock required for a new event, he explained, and the rodeo wouldn’t bring in enough money to pay winners adequately.
“We will not include another event at the NFR if it can’t be (equally) paid and if all of the athletes can’t be treated on the same level,” said Woody.
‘One of the fastest events in the sport of rodeo, Breakaway Roping requires speed, precision and technique. The cowgirl positions herself and nods her head, giving the signal to release the calf. Once released with a head start, it is up to the cowgirl to rope the calf and stop her horse as quickly as possible. This causes the rope to ‘breakaway’ from the saddle horn in which it is tied to with a string, stopping the time. If the cowgirl cues her horse too early and ‘breaks the barrier’ rope, she will receive a 10 second penalty, with missing the calf resulting in a no time. There are a lot of variables in this event, but you better not blink – most runs are over in two seconds or less!’
— Breakaway Roping explained at the Calgary Stampede website
“The only funding for the event comes from ticket sales and television revenue, and there is no way to sell more tickets in that venue or to drive additional revenue,” said Woody.
This is unlikely to change soon: the PRCA recently signed a contract to remain at the Thomas & Mack Arena until 2035, with the promise of $264 million U.S. from Las Vegas Events for prize money and stock contractors.
Rodeo athletes have faced this struggle before.
The first NFR, held in Dallas, Texas in 1959, only had five events. Both barrel racers and team ropers had to compete somewhere else for their year-end championships.
While team roping joined the NFR in 1962, the barrel racing wasn’t included until 1968, and didn’t get equal prize money until 30 years later, according to the WPRA.
“I think the one thing the breakaway ropers have to remember is it took years for barrel racing to get set up and be right,” said Joe Beaver, an eight-time world champion roper and rodeo broadcaster from Huntsville, Texas.
“So, it is coming… and it’s coming fast. Maybe not as fast as the older ones want it to, and I get it, but it is coming, and it will be a major player before it’s over.”
While Winchell understands the constraints, she also feels for the breakaway ropers who are left out of the biggest event in the sport of rodeo.
“The hardest thing I think as a breakaway roper is to sit there and watch as they have the finals at the South Point, and they don’t get a huge crowd,” said Winchell.
While the exclusion is frustrating to professional breakaway ropers who dream of performing on the NFR stage, roping for equal prize money is a more pressing issue, according to Beaver.
In 2024, the NFR paid $1.5 million per event. In comparison, the NFBR paid $300,000.
That same year, Macy Auclair, the top breakaway roper in Canada, made just over $41,600 at Canadian pro rodeos. Meanwhile, the top steer wrestler, Dalton Massey, made roughly $70,000.
This disparity is present across many professional sports.
The average salary in the Professional Women’s Hockey League in 2024 was $55,000 according to the 2024 PWHL Players Association bargaining agreement, while the minimum salary in the NHL was $775,000, according to a press release from the NHL. Overall, 78 per cent of professional women athletes reported making $50,000 or less in 2024 according to a 2024 study by Parity.
The Women’s Professional Rodeo Association wants to make equal money a reality within the next two years.
The WPRA is the sanctioning body for women’s professional rodeo in North America. It approves rodeos and jackpots exclusively for women, as well as PRCA rodeos that feature barrel racing and breakaway roping.
For a rodeo including breakaway roping for the first time to be approved by the WPRA, the rodeo committee must raise at least $500 in prize money for the event, according to Ann Bleiker, the media director for the WPRA. If it’s the rodeo’s second time including breakaway roping, the committee must raise at least half the money it pays the barrel racers. This pattern repeats every year until the prize money is the same for each event, Bleiker said.
“The hope is, … by 2026, well, fully 2027, all rodeos would have to have equal money to the barrel racing” for breakaway roping, said Bleiker.
The CPRA has a different approach to securing equal money for its breakaway ropers, Bird said.
“The strategy we’ve taken is trying to show the rodeo committees the value of the breakaway roping, and (for) the rodeo committees that are struggling to increase their purse, helping them to attract sponsors to donate to the breakaway roping specifically… So, we really tried to take the strategy of asking and helping rather than mandating,” said Bird.
Breakaway roping is an optional event in the CPRA, so, “if we say, ‘Hey, you gotta add more money (for) the breakaway,’ they have the option to just not have it,” she explained.
According to Bird, 30 per cent of CPRA rodeos featuring breakaway roping in 2024 paid equal money.
Even rodeos unable to raise equal money for breakaway roping often go beyond the $500 minimum required by the CPRA, such as the Strathmore Stampede in Alberta. In 2025, the rodeo committee for the Strathmore Stampede will offer $20,000 in prize money for each of the seven major events and $12,000 for breakaway roping, according to Bird.
The CPRA isn’t the only Canadian rodeo organization promoting women in rodeo.
The Canadian Cowboys Association made breakaway roping a major event in 2022. This means breakaway roping must be featured in all CCA rodeos and must have equal prize money.
“It’s really incredible to me that it’s considered a major event in the CCA, and that we get to win the same dollars that any other event gets to win, and that we get to go to the same finals,” said Shelby Lockie, a CCA breakaway roper living in Regina, Sask.
CCA athletes, including breakaway ropers, can earn upwards of $9,000 annually depending on their skill and how many rodeos they attend.
While many organizations have rallied around breakaway roping, the new event has not been without opposition.
‘For me it always goes back to remembering being a little girl at rodeos with my parents, and who I looked up to at the time, of course, was barrel racers. So, I look really hard at how we behave as breakaway ropers, knowing that little girl is always still in the stands.’
— Shelby Lockie, breakaway roper, Regina, Sask.
“They were worried that breakaway roping was a college and high school event and that it wouldn’t show well at a professional level — that girls didn’t rope good enough to put on a show at professional rodeos,” Bird said.
Without opportunities in professional rodeo, women had no reason to develop their roping skills beyond the college level, Bird said.
“But over the last five years as it’s grown, that’s really changed, and there’s lots of girls that are working hard at their roping and getting better to show well on a professional level,” Bird said.
With more opportunities for breakaway ropers at all levels of rodeo, Switzer said the roping is already good, and only going to get better.
Switzer started breakaway roping in high school rodeos when she was in the sixth grade. After graduating high school in 2012, she had to stop competing while she completed her social work degree at the University of Regina.
She grew up watching her dad, Blaine Switzer, make the CCA finals, followed by her brother Matt and all the friends she had rodeoed with, she recalled. They “got to go to CCA rodeos or pro rodeos or whatever, but there was nowhere for me to go rope competitively unless I went down south to college,” Switzer said.
For Winchell, professional breakaway roping gives her athletes something more to look forward to.
“A lot of these girls that I’m coaching, they come to college, and they’re so focused on making the college finals,” Winchell said.
“I try to tell them (it’s) just a stepping stone.”
While breakaway ropers across North America have their sights set on more high-profile championships and better prize money, they are also opening doors for generations to come.
“For me it always goes back to remembering being a little girl at rodeos with my parents, and who I looked up to at the time, of course, was barrel racers. So, I look really hard at how we behave as breakaway ropers, knowing that little girl is always still in the stands,” Lockie said.
According to Bird, inspiring that little girl in the stands is what matters most.
“One of the coolest parts about the breakaway roping and being able to rope at the CFR to me is that we’re showing little girls growing up that they can have that goal.”
