Out here "Rodeo" is a primary sport.
You couldn't have brought up a better example. I mean come on, the rough stock guys wear helmets, mouth pieces and kevlar vest. Yes, that's the rodeo of my childhood memories. I cried when Lane died too. He was a hero and a local boy so it hit close to home, but since then the sport has changed tremendously. I expect them to put the guys in a giant inflatable suit at some point.
After I moved away our high school rodeo team shut down because fewer and fewer kids were interested. That's in a town of 800 people in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma. Jr rodeo isn't what it was when I was young. There are still some good NIRA teams out there, but most of America has never heard of it or them. McNeese is the only one left in the state of Louisiana and there were several when I graduated high school. "Out here" as you called it is shrinking. It's part of the reason we have the big influx of foreign riders in competition today. Brazil doesn't have a bunch of overly protective parents.