Hawai'i Horse Owners association presented the 16th Annual 2008 Panaewa Stampede Rodeo.  It was held at the Panaewa Equestrian Center in Hilo Hawai'i on February 16 & 17, Saturday and Sunday.  This was a lot of fun.

I did something different in this posting.  I've made some videos of the rodeo and posted them on my YouTube page.  Most of the pictures will have a link to the video if you want to see them, then come back to see the rest.  You can see all the videos at the link above.  If you like this format, let me know.













Paniolo means Cowboy in Hawaiian.  Ancient Hawai`i boasted no large land mammals, but with the arrival of Western ships, new plants and animals soon found their way to the Islands. The simple-seeming gift of a few cattle given to Kamehameha I by Captain George Vancouver in 1793 made a major impact on the Hawaii's economy and ecosystem. It also spawned a rich tradition of cowboy and ranch culture that is still visible today.




Spaniards introduced the first cattle to Veracruz, Mexico in 1521. Vancouver picked up descendants of these animals from the Spanish mission in Monterey, California when he set off across the Pacific, intending to use them as food and gifts. The first cows and bulls given the Hawaiians fared poorly, either falling ill and dying or quickly killed and eaten. When Vancouver landed additional cattle at Kealakekua in 1794, he strongly encouraged Kamehameha to place a 10-year kapu on them to allow the herd to grow.



Grow they did, into a huge problem. In the following decades - the kapu was not lifted until 1830 - cattle flourished and turned into a dangerous nuisance. By 1846, 25,000 wild cattle roamed at will and an additional 10,000 semi-domesticated cattle lived alongside humans. A wild bull or cow could weigh 1,200 to 1,500 pounds and had a six-foot horn spread. Vast herds destroyed natives’ crops, ate the thatching on houses, and hurt, attacked and sometimes killed people.



By the time of Kamehameha III's reign (1824-1854), something had to be done. After the kapu was lifted in 1830, the hunting of wild cattle was encouraged. The king hired bullock hunters from overseas to help in the effort. Many of these were former convicts from Botany Bay in Australia. Hunting sometimes ended in inadvertent tragedy. In 1834, the trampled dead body of Scottish botanist David Douglas - for whom the Douglas Fir is named - was discovered a bullock pit on Mauna Kea. Though suspicious head wounds and a quantity of missing cash also implied murder, bullock traps caught humans and other unsuspecting humans with alarming frequency.



The first skill the Islands’ new cowboys needed was horse handling. Most of the early horses in Hawai`i were mustangs, tough strong horses that required a minimum of care. Many were not well trained or were only partially broken. Pupule referred to crazy horses, hapalaka meant half broken and laka was a fully broken horse; a laka horse was the most effective work animal and invariably in high demand.

Vaquero used big Spanish spurs and heavy spade bits to control the most spirited horses. Once trained, a 600-900 pound horse could carry heavy loads, climb rugged hills and work hard all day. In corralling and driving cattle, they were an essential partner for the paniolo.

The vaquero also shared their roping skills and taught Hawaiians how to control and thin the bullock herds and turn them into domesticated cattle. They showed Hawaiians their leather working techniques, how to cut and braid lariats, and in the hours after work, how to play the guitars they’d brought with them from California.



Later when cattle production and ranching became more established, paniolo also became skilled in transporting cattle from land to sea. Before refrigeration, cattle were often shipped live and transferred from neighbor islands to the Honolulu stockyards for sale. Cowboys atop their horses swam cattle out through the surf to waiting longboats which then rowed out to the steamer, the cattle tied by their heads to the gunwales. Hydraulic systems were later able to hoist cattle from the dock and out over the water to the inter-island steamer.



This is a unique event found only in Hawaiian rodeo.  Harking back to the story of capturing wild cattle, tying them to a tree was only the first part of returning from areas overgrown with trees to the ranch with a cankerous wild cow.  In this rodeo event, two paniolo will work together to knock over a cow to the ground and tie up three of it's legs.  This event involves full size steers and often turns into a wrestling match between  man and beast.



The "Po'o Wai U" is a technique developed by the paniolo to capture free ranging, wild cattle.  A wild cow would be lassoed around the horns and then tied to a tree.  Overnight the cow would hopefully wear itself out.  The next day the paniolo would return to bring in the untamed cow.  One of the "pipi ahiu" (wild cow) would be tied together with one or two tamer cattle and then the trio of cows would be herded back to the ranch.  At our rodeo event commemorating this activity, a cowboy will have to lasso a cow by the horns, pass the rope through a Y-shaped pole (simulating a tree), snugging and tying the cow to the pole (tree).

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