Bull Riding, Sunday Afternoons & Safety

So it's Sunday afternoon - my favorite time of the week to doze off on my couch while sluggishly flipping from station to station.  Usually, I end up watching some weird public television program that is just boring enough to let me have a great nap.  Today however, I couldn't find anything that caught my attention. I watched the end of a football game that the Tennesse Titans easily won and then I stumbled across a bull riding show from LasVegas.  Maybe I'm not very cultured - but I have never really seen a bull riding show.  I was just about turn but my two year protested by saying - "But mommy I really want to see the cows".  So naturally, I left it on for a few minutes to watch.

What I saw was really interesting.  The first rider we watched was what I would have thought of as a typical cowboy. He didn't look to be wearing any protective gear - just a cowboy hat and pair of chaps over his jeans.   He stayed on the horse for a few brief moments,  fell off and was kicked in the face.  When he stood back up you could see blood trickling down his face.  

The second rider looked like he was ready for an entirely different competition.  He had a full mask on his face and a really big protective vest covering his chest and thicker and wider chaps covering his legs.  I will admit that I felt safer watching this guy and it made me think - why don't all bull riders wear this safety gear?.   

In a lot of ways - watching this bull competition reminds me of how much work we have to do in the area of safety culture.  You can be sure that the guys not wearing the face masks and protective gear don't do it for purely macho reasons.   Because as far as I can tell you don't have to have great vision to stay on a bull.  

And in almost every other job arena - macho culture plays a huge role.   Lots of people take short cuts and take risks simply to "look cool".  I don't know what we will do to change this behavior.  But I know we can start by identifying macho behavior and asking hard questions related to it.  

Oh by the way the Rookie of they year in the bull circuit was wearing full protective equipment - which gives me hope - that safety culture is making progress.