Live like a cowboy in Masbate

The embossed leather cowboy boots may be viewed as a mere fashion affectation when worn in a tropical city. But in a real ranch where numerous cows are raised, we were able to fully appreciate the functionality and good sense behind wearing the sturdy footwear. As we gingerly circled numerous cow pies — some of them still fresh and steaming — on the way to the main corral, we saw firsthand that high-cut boots offer the best protection from squishy landmines of cow dung.

We were in Masbate, the Philippines’ cattle country. With vast tracks of land suitable for grazing, this was home to numerous ranches. There has been an impressive growth of the cattle industry in recent years so that apart from local ranchers, foreign companies have chosen to invest in growing and breeding cattle in the area. Moreover, we were told that because local cowboys are exceptionally competent in their jobs, many of them have been recruited to work in ranches abroad (particularly in Australia.) Not surprisingly, winners of the province’s yearly Rodeo Festival are especially favored for overseas employment because of their documented skills.  

This year, Masbate’s unique Rodeo Festival will be held until April 15 with competitors from all over the Philippines vying for medals. Competition categories include steer lassoing on horseback; carambola (where two to four team members catch a steer without using any lariat or rope, and then wrestle it to the ground to tie its legs); cattle-lassoing and -wrestling on foot (where the animal is caught with a lasso, wrestled to the ground and three legs are tied); and bull-riding. Since 1993, Masbate’s Rodeo Festival has been supervised and regulated by Rodeo Masbateno Inc. (RMI), a non-stock corporation that aims to promote continuous and sustained growth of Masbate’s cattle industry. Participants include professional cowboys who work in the various ranches and students from colleges and universities throughout the Philippines. 

While it was heartening as a Baguio native to hear that the homeboys and homegirls from my own region’s Benguet State University held their own against the competition, I figured that the heftier competitors would have unfair advantage in the various rodeo events that involved wrestling the animals to the ground. Not so, said rancher Leo Gozum who is this year’s rodeo director.

“Handling skills and technique are more important than brute force,” he stated. “Size isn’t necessarily synonymous to strength.  The more important thing is to achieve the task without causing injury to the animal.” He explained that the contests inherently involve skills necessary to cowboys as they go about their daily routines. Roping, for example, is a means of keeping a cow immobile so that medicine can be administered without the added task of herding the animal into a pen. 

To assuage the concerns of animal welfare groups and to ensure that the animals are healthy, Dr. Hernando Dorongon, the country’s only accredited rodeo veterinarian, is on hand. “Rodeo is a unique sport where real animals are involved, so there is a need to see to it that these are healthy,” he said. “There are so-called ‘zoonotic diseases’ from animals that can affect humans.” As an example Dr. Dorongon cites brucellosis, an infectious bacterial disease that results in infertility. “It isn’t prolonged horseback riding that causes infertility in cowboys.” Fortunately, brucellosis is uncommon in the Philippines. Furthermore, Masbate has been foot and mouth disease (FMD)-free since 2004.

As an added attraction for those in Masbate during rodeo season, there will be tours that will allow them to experience life on a ranch. We had preview of this as we branded cows in Judge Manuel Sese’s place and helped drive the cattle into a pen on the ranch of Edwin and Jills Du.

What makes Masbate additionally special is the close proximity of the ocean. When one has had enough from trying out cowboy life on turf, it is a simple matter to become a beach bum and enjoy the surf. We didn’t get to swim but we nevertheless enjoyed the seafood. We climbed the roof of the boat to be able to disembark in the middle of the 1.3 kilometer boardwalk built over the sea to connect barangays Maingaran and Pawa and walked to where fishermen sold fresh crabs, fish, shrimps, clams and assorted shellfish. We also crossed the sea to get to the sea snake, bird and bat sanctuary at Minalayo islet off Barangay Gibraltar, Batuan.

Still, if I were to single out the most memorable part of this visit, it would have to be driving through a dirt path on Leo Gozum’s  sturdy Isuzu truck to reach the top of a grassy knoll within Judge Manuel Sese’s ranch. With the clean wind blowing and an unimpeded vista of the green countryside, it was like being transported back in time to Baguio City’s “Marlboro Country” of my childhood. There is a rush of happiness and thanksgiving.

“God of the open, though I am so simple/Out in the wind I can travel with you,/ Noons when the hot mesas ripple and dimple,/Nights when the stars glitter cool in the blue.” I imagine that this is the Masbate version of American cowboy-poet Badger Clark’s verse.