Rodeo is a conventional North American sport with influences from the history of Mexican vaqueros (cowboys) and American cowboys. Rodeo sports events include the rough stock events bull riding, bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, the timed events steer wrestling, team roping, calf roping, the hardly ever seen steer roping, and women's barrel racing, breakaway roping, goat roping and pole bending. The rodeo participants include cowboys, cowgirls and also rodeo clowns or bull fighters.

The oldest and main sanctioning body of professional rodeo is the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) which sanctions around 700 rodeos once a year. The Professional Bull Riders (PBR) is a new organization devoted to Bull Riding and puts on a number of sports events. There are also high school rodeos, amateur rodeos, and rodeos for women. Some colleges, like the University of Montana have a rodeo sport team. The National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association is accountable for the College National Rodeo Finals. Also accessible is the National High School Rodeo Association (NHSRA). This organization provides internationally competitive rodeo sport to high school students.

There are many rodeos held throughout the United States and Canada . Between the more prominent are the Calgary Stampede; Frontier Days in Cheyenne , Wyoming ; the National Western Stock Show in Denver ; Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in Houston , Texas ; and the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) which takes place in Las Vegas , Nevada . The NFR (National Finals Rodeo) is held each December at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas and features the top 15 rodeo competitors from each of the events. In 2003, it is predicted that attendance at the 10 days of the National Finals Rodeo (NFR) will top more than 170,000 with another 9 million people watching the rodeo sport on TV.