During the July 19, 2013 slack* at the California Rodeo
Salinas a steer wrestling steer was injured. The steer ran in front of the
steer wrestler’s horse, the animals collided and the horse of the steer
wrestler stumbled and stepped on the steer’s neck. The steer was loaded onto
the veterinary team’s sled to move it for evaluation outside the arena and the
steer died before reaching the edge of the arena. Veterinarian Tim Eastman
suspects the steer fractured its neck. Dr. Eastman commented that he had never
seen anything like that and it was a freak accident. The horse and cowboy are
reported to be uninjured.
*Often, there are more cowboys entered in a rodeo than there
are slots for them to compete. When this happens, cowboys who are not scheduled
to compete in one of the regular performances post their times or score during
slack, which is generally held the morning of the rodeo or the day before. Scores
and times posted during slack count just like those posted during the regular
performance.