Truthfully I didn't see much there that struck me as being especially cruel.
You have to understand, animals like horses do not come out naturally passive, friendly, and obiedient to humans. "breaking" horses has been part of domesticating them for a VERY long time and they have made sort of a sport out of it. Sometimes horses WILL die before being broken, and some horses that simply cannot be domesticated have to be put down for that reason.
As far as the bit with the cattle, well the whole bloody point of a Cowboy is to herd and take down cattle presumably so they can be killed, butchered, and eaten. They are demonstrating and competing within those techniques. Indeed they probably don't just do this at the Rodeo (where they are displaying their skillz) but professionally since the guys there doubtlessly ranch and aren't really concerned about hurting the walking steak.
In general it seems to all generally come down to your attitudes on a lot of things. Some people would argue that with cars we have no need to break and domesticate horses. Others are against herding, slaughtering, and eating animals in general.
Yep, in such events the animals are sometimes going to be injured, but then again so are the people. Over the years I've seen more than a few videos of some of these Rodeo guys getting absolutly mauled. I guess this is sort of the flip side of some of those "amusing" Rodeo clown videos of a clown having to lure an animal away from some dude who got yanked off his saddle, stepped on, and then dragged halfway accross the enclosure.
Simply put these competitive demonstrations are no more cruel than the activities (horse breaking, cattle ranching, etc..) that they involve. You can't judge them without judging the activity. Yep, breaking a horse is not exactly a pleasant activity involving positive reinforcement. Unlike say a dog, that horse can crush you easily, yet you want it to see YOU as the boss and do what YOU tell it. The cattle is food, and has to be seen that way. There are more conveinent ways of doing it, and it's easier to drag the cattle back intact, but in the end if the cow dies when your bringing it down, it's still a bloody steak. I mean it was being raised there specifically to be eaten.
>>>----Therumancer--->
>>>----Therumancer--->
