I empathize with a family showing up and not knowing what a rooster pull is,' John Garcia, the state tourism secretary, said Monday. From what I've read, there wasn't much left of the rooster by the time it was over,' Torrez said. Horsemen then ride by and, leaning down from the back of the horse, attempt to grab the rooster. Torrez said that it was his understanding that once a rider gets the rooster, other participants try to pull the bird away. The idea is to keep the horseman with the rooster from crossing a finish line with the bird in hand.
Participants then try to grab the rooster, and the bird often is torn apart in the process.
Jose Jojola, a member of Isleta Pueblo just south of Albuquerque, said rooster pulls conducted by the tribe resulted in broken bones for riders and horses and led to fights among competitors. You're riding at full speed sometimes. There are a lot of horses out there. Rooster pulls were introduced to New Mexico by the Spanish hundreds of years ago. The Spanish also introduced Roman Catholicism to the Indians, who have made rooster pulls part of their activities on feast days held to honor particular Catholic saints.