On 23 July, the Royal Jersey Agricultural and Horticultural Society were contacted by the booking manager for one of the cowboys, ‘Montana Bob’, offering to send over a team to perform a Rodeo in the island.
Pictured: A report on the scepticism of whether ‘Montana Bob’ would show up in person.
On 1 August, they were offered six horses and six men for a Rodeo, which the Committee accepted. A couple of weeks later, this changed to three men and two bucking horses, with the Committee asked to procure four horses locally for riding purposes.
Finally, a couple of days before the event at Springfield, Montana Bob telegraphed to confirm that he was definitely bringing two bucking horses and four men. He was due to arrive on 28 August. Officials went to meet him but he wasn’t on the boat.
He wired later that day stating that Montana Bob and two riders were due to arrive on the morning boat. He claimed that he was unable to bring any horses as authorities had advised that it was too dangerous.
Meanwhile, anticipation in the island had reached fever pitch. The official film of the Rodeo at Wembley had been shown at the Picture House in mid-August, with the Evening Post proclaiming that “we feel assured that Manager Wheatman will have a busy time at the box office this weekend”.
Pictured: A report of the rodeo film in the Evening Post.
A few days before the event, it was reported that plenty of seats were being booked and that a similar show held in Cambridge earlier in the month in front of 25,000 had been received with great success.
Indeed, crowds went to greet Montana Bob off the boat he was supposed to arrive on and cheered when they spotted some horses, although these turned out to be calm horses meant for a local dealer.
The scene was set for a spectacular show when they finally arrived and announced an exciting programme, including trick roping, half hitching, horse roping, the cattle thief, pony express, relay race and potato race.
Springfield was completely packed, with the Lieutenant Governor arriving at 19:30 to the sounds of the National Anthem.
Pictured: The Lieutenant Governor at the time, General Majoy Sir Francis Richard Bingham saw the show.
Unfortunately, the Rodeo did not go as hoped.
The headlines in the Evening Post the next day were: ‘Jersey’s First Rodeo, Unanimous Opinion: A Fiasco, Horse Bolts: Spectators Injured, Alleged Cruelty to a Horse, “Montana Bob” Arrested’.
The first lines of the report read: “Jersey has held its first Rodeo; we should not be surprised if it has held its last. The cowboys came, they saw, but they certainly did not conquer.”
Montana Bob begun the show by apologising that they had not been able to bring their own horses to the event and that they would try and put on as good a display as possible with the hired animals.
Pictured: A damning report of the “fiasco” that was Jersey’s first rodeo.
The Rodeo started promisingly with displays of trick and fancy roping, which received some applause. Then it came to the horse displays. The hired animals proved highly inadequate replacements for the cowboy’s usual steeds, which meant that the show left the audience “in a state of amused boredom.”
However, it was during the relay race that the event took a turn for the worse. At that point the saddle girths of the horse being ridden by ‘Lew Oakes’ broke and the rider was thrown. The newspaper reported that this was the only animal up until then that had shown any spirit.
The horse ran off, trying to find an escape route, but the crowds were so tightly packed that there was no way to go. This was something the RJAHS officials had warned Montana Bob about in advance and he had told them that “safety is assured”.
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for some spectators, with the horse trying to leap over the crowd and knocking over a number of people, including Evening Post reporter William Troy and his family. He received a nasty kick, which was originally thought to have broken his leg.
Pictured: Registration card of William Troy who was injured at the event
To confound matters Joseph Roberts, 33, aka ‘Montana Bob’, was ordered to appear in front of the Magistrate’s Court the following day. The States Vet had examined the animal that he was riding in his bucking horse display and found that it had a number of wounds down its side.
Montana Bob had attempted to buck the horse, even though it was a local docile animal, using padded spurs and was brought up for Animal Cruelty.
After some argument, the Judge agreed that cruelty had taken place but there was mitigation in that he felt he had to make the horses buck to put on a show.
Montana Bob was fined £1 and he and his cowboys left the island soon after.
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This story has been told as part of a series in collaboration with Jersey Heritage.
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