Comic relief Dale Brisby hails the rodeo pick-up man as the most talented cowboy in the rodeo arena. Try out his tips (at your own risk) to look cowboy cool picking up.
According to super puncher Dale Brisby, the most cowboy thing someone can do in the rodeo arena is not ride bull, not fight a bull, not ride a bronc, rope a steer, or tie a calf — it’s pickin’ up!
The cowboy comedian shares four easy things someone can do look the part of a rodeo pick-up man (but please do so at your own risk—it is coming from DB after all).
- Buy a horse from a current pick-up man. Call up the likes of Jason Bottoms, Shawn “Too Tall” Calhoun, Chase Cervi and Jeremy Willis, and “get a horse that knows what he’s doing and let him do all the work,” says Brisby.
- Equip yourself with kick pads. Nothing looks cooler than preparing for the worst.
- Wear your own leggings. Not only that, insist on wearing your own leggings, aka pick-up man chaps, for the rodeo. Brisby adds, “It’s all about after the rodeo so you can tell the ladies at the bar ‘Hey, I’m a cowboy lifesaver. That’s right, I’m a pick-up man.” You’ll get extra points for breaking into the Joe Diffie classic “Pickup Man.”
- When in doubt, build a bigger loop. “As far as the technical stuff, like cutting the bronc off at the corner, taking the flank off, peeling away, to the kick over . . . Don’t worry about that. It’ll come. Just build a big loop and throw a Derrick Begay loop out there at those bulls.” Dale says don’t hesitate to tie off if you want to. “Believe me, it’ll work out. And if not, hopefully someone is Snapchatting and you end up on Rodeo Wrecks.
If picking up isn’t your thing, Brisby offers other cowboy situations you can try looking cool at, like in the branding pen, as a horse trainer, and doctoring wheat pasture cattle.
