Amateur rodeos, often during summer holidays, became commonplace throughout the western United States and Canada. It took a while for rodeo stars to emerge. Rough stock, however, quickly became legends in their own time. Bucking horses, like Steamboat, Midnight, Tipperary, and Five Minutes to Midnight, became more famous than the men who challenged them. According to rodeo legend, Tipperary first met his match in future stuntman and actor Yakima Canutt.
Some performers come from cowboy backgrounds.
Increasingly numbers of rodeo performers, however, come from non-ranch backgrounds. Rodeo riders saw the need to organize on their own behalf. The turtle moniker reflected the fact that it took performers a long time to get organized. Col. W.T. Johnson's rodeo at the Boston Garden. At the time the total purse was less than the sum of their entry fees.