Billy Pickett: the mulatto cowboy who initiated bullriding (6 photos)

Despite the color of his skin, Bill Pickett went down in history as one of the most famous cowboys of the Wild West.





Who is a cowboy? Basically a shepherd. Accordingly, he must well versed not only in physiology, but also in the psychology of animals. Despite only 5 grades, this guy is so deep studied a topic that can be compared to a professor in terms of knowledge.



Billy, in whose veins the blood of whites, blacks and Cherokee Indians, appeared in the family of a former mulatto slave in 1870 and was the second child of thirteen. After dropping out of school, he began to help his father on ranch and realized that routine work can be turned into art. And good to make money on it.

Billy not only mastered the techniques of rodeo, but also invented a unique technique - the so-called bulldogging. Despite very average physical data (height 1.70 and weight 65 kg), the guy learned to blame the land of even the largest and wildest bulls. How did he do it? Pickett grabbed the animal by the horns and dug his teeth into a vulnerable place - the lips. Bull from pain and surprise fell to the ground. Billy also spied on the technique in wildlife - in dogs, bulldogs, which attacked in this way on stray animals and almost always got out of the fight winners.





When Pickett began performing at fairs in front of large crowds of people, he decided to improve his method and turned bulldogging into bullriding - bull rodeo. He jumped onto the back of a bull from a horse, and so but he dug into the lips of the animal until the horned giant had time to come to myself. Legendary was Billy's 1908 performance in Mexico City, during which he overcame a giant fighting bull in 7 minutes.

Pickett devoted 40 years of his life to performing. Under a pseudonym "Swarty demon" he traveled not only the United States, but also Mexico, Canada, many European countries and already during his lifetime became a rodeo legend. In 1921 the man starred in two cowboy-themed films Bull Dogger and "Crimson Skull".



Pickett's death also became symbolic. Although he could handle any animal, domestic or wild, and he also died because of the animal: his struck by a wild mustang, which the man was trying to ride. However, for At that time, he lived quite a long life - 61 years. Married to Pickett's former mulatto slave Maggie had 9 children.



Bill was posthumously inducted into the National Hall of Fame in 1971. rodeo. And in 1987, the artist Lisa Perry dedicated "Swarthy Demon" a statue representing bulldogging.