Cowboys stampede in Steamboat

17th January 2018, by Abi Butcher

This year 80 professional rodeo riders took part in the Cowboy Downhill in Steamboat

With the Winter Olympics coming up, there’s one set of skiers and snowboarders who might not have qualified for their tickets to Pyeongchang — some cowboys from Colorado.

Some 80 professional rodeo cowboys took part in the 44th running of the Bud Light Cowboy Downhill in Steamboat, Colorado on Monday (15 January) — with heats of pairs of riders pitching against each other, providing a pretty hilarious spectacle. The most popular bit of the event is when they all stampede in a free-for-all to see who crosses the finish line first.

The event began in the Wild West town more than 40 years ago when the director of skiing at Steamboat — Billy Kidd — and six-time All-Around World Champion Cowboy Larry Mahan first invited a few of their ProRodeo star friends to go skiing in Steamboat. And 44 years on, the Bud Light Cowboy Downhill has become Steamboat’s most popular event of the season.

Every year it is scheduled close to the National Western Stock Show in Denver, so all the cowboys will be in the Colorado area to take part.  The video below makes pretty funny watching.

• ski
• snowboard
• skiing
• colorado
• olympics
• steamboat
• cowboy
• cowboy downhill

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