Definition of the word bronco

The word "bronco" originated from the Spanish word "bravo," meaning wild or untamed. It was first used by Spanish settlers to describe wild, unbroken horses in the Americas. The Spanish pronounce the word as "bray-noh," which evolved into "bronco" in English. The term "bronco" was widely recognized during the heyday of the American West, particularly during the late 1800s when the U.S. Government was pushing western settlement. Cowboys often wrote requests to their families back East for a "bronco bite," hay or sack needed to break excessively wild horses that they captured or received from resourceful Indians. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, bronco busting, the skillful taming of the wild horse, attracted epidemic audiences to rodeos in the U.S. And Canada. It was at the Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming during the 1890s that bronco busting became associated with the rodeo, featuring events such as saddle bronc riding and bareback bronc riding. Eventually, the term "bronco" became synonymous with the rodeo and has persisted as a historic and cultural staple of American cowboy parlance ever since.