A Stock contractor is an individual or business that provides animals for rodeo

Rodeo

Rodeo is a competitive sport which arose out of the working practices of cattle herding in Spain, Mexico, and later the United States, Canada, South America and Australia. It was based on the skills required of the working vaqueros and later, cowboys, in what today is the western United States,...

 competition. Stock contractors supply "rough stock" - Saddle bronc and bareback bronc

Saddle bronc and bareback riding

Bronc riding, either saddle bronc or bareback bronc competition, is a rodeo event that involves a rodeo participant riding on a horse , that attempts to throw or buck off the rider...

 horses (Au-buckjumpers) and bull riding

Bull riding

Bull riding refers to rodeo sports that involve a rider getting on a large bull and attempting to stay mounted while the animal attempts to buck off the rider....

 bulls, plus steers for steer wrestling

Steer wrestling

Steer wrestling, also known as bulldogging, is a rodeo event in which a horse-mounted rider chases a steer, drops from the horse to the steer, then wrestles the steer to the ground by twisting its horns. Like all rodeo events, there are concerns from the animal rights community that the competition...

 (also called "dogging steers") and team roping

Team roping

Team roping also known as heading and heeling is a rodeo event that features a steer and two mounted riders. The first roper is referred to as the "header," the person who ropes the front of the steer, usually around the horns, but it is also legal for the rope to go around the neck, or go around...

, plus calves

Calf

Calves are the young of domestic cattle. Calves are reared to become adult cattle, or are slaughtered for their meat, called veal.-Terminology:...

 for calf roping

Calf roping

Calf roping, also known as tie-down roping, is a rodeo event that features a calf and a rider mounted on a horse. The goal of this timed event is for the rider to catch the calf by throwing a loop of rope from a lariat around its neck, dismount from the horse, run to the calf, and restrain it by...

 events. Contract stock has produced a more uniform range of bucking stock which are also quieter to handle.

Most bucking stock is specifically bred for use in rodeos, with horses and bulls having exceptional bucking ability fetching a high price. Most are allowed to grow up in a natural, semi-wild condition on the open range, but also have to be gentled and tamed in order to be managed from the ground, safely loaded into trailers, vaccinated and wormed, and to load in and out of bucking chutes. Due to the rigors of travel and the short bursts of high intensity work required, most horses in a bucking string are at least 6 or 7 years old.

In 1903, Raymond Knight built the first rodeo arena and grandstand in Canada, and in the process became the first rodeo producer and rodeo stock contractor. In the 1950's, one of the best-known North American stock contractors, Reg Kesler

Reg Kesler

Reg Kesler began his rodeo career at the age of 14 at the Raymond Stampede, competing in the boys steer riding. At the time, it was common for cowboys to compete in many or even all the rodeo events, and Kesler was no exception as he grew into his rodeo career...

 set up a string of rough stock due to the growing demand for bucking horses. He supplied stock to rodeos and events across Canada and the United States before retiring in 1967. Kessler was posthumously inducted into the National Cowboy & Western Museum Rodeo Hall of Fame in October 2009.

In Australia stock contractors may also supply some of the brumbies

Brumby

A Brumby is a free-roaming feral horse in Australia. Although found in many areas around the country, the best-known brumbies are found in the Australian Alps region in south-eastern Australia. Today, most of them are found in the Northern Territory, with the second largest population in Queensland...

used in the “brumby catch” event which is part of stockman challenges.