World champion trick roper Joan Wells demonstrates this unique art, loved by Americans for more than a century.
Wells uses the vanishing folk art of trick roping to bring the color and history of the Old West alive. South of the border in Old Mexico, the charros created rope spinning--making intricate flower designs with ropes. When Vincente Otopeza introduced this trick roping tradition to Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1894, he gave American cowboys a different perspective on trick and fancy roping. Wells follows the evolution of trick roping through the heyday of Will Rogers and his affiliation with the Texas Jacks Wild West Show and the Ziegfeld Follies in the first decades of the 20th century.
Presented by Humanities Nebraska.
