Good evening I am Harry Hangnale for the Redneck News Network. Todays top story is taken from "The Riverton Rukus Weekly" Newspaper est. 1874

There has been a fuss lately about Moose racing, so I set out to set the record straight, in my research I have found a tidbit of information that you may find interesting RNN sent me on an all expense paid trip to Riverton Wyoming to bring to you the truth about Moose Racing I ran across an article in the Riverton Rukus Weekly newspaper dated 3/23/2004 This is where I started my Journalistic research.

Moose racing is an old Wyoming event that was held at Mountain man Rendezvous. It was started by two of the most famous Mountain men in American history, Jim Bridger (1804-1881) who moved west in 1822 at the age of 17 to trap fur and scout for the U.S. army. The other mountain man was Kit Carson (1809-1868) he made his start as a trapper and lived among and married into the Arapahoe and Cheyenne tribes that lived along the upper Green River which flows through Pinedale and Riverton Wyoming.

The first known Moose Race took place in Riverton at the annual Mountain man rendezvous in 1825. The object of the sport was two fold. 1) The contestants were each given a pint of corn whiskey in which they had to down, then they had to rope and catch a moose that was corralled in a high fenced area. 2) When all the contestants caught their ride they had to place their muzzle loaders (rifle) between the paddles of the moose. Once this was done and the rider had straddled the moose a shot was fired and the contestant that made it to the finish line with his muzzle loader still cradled between the paddles of the moose was the winner. If a contestant lost his rifle he had the option to retrieve it, though most did not for trying to re-catch a moose in the open led to loss of limbs and sometimes death.

The first winner of Moose racing was Jedediah Smith (1799-1831) world known Mountain man. Jed won this event 6 years before his untimely death in 1831 when he was in the process of inventing Grizzly racing. (authors note: one should always be sober when in the area of Grizzly bear)

Moose racing saw it’s heights from 1825 through the mid 1840’s and along with the mountain man era it also died out, until recently. A group of young adventurous dare devils who have tackled snowboarding, skate boarding and sky-boarding are making a gallant effort to revive this sport. Gary Logan founder of “The brotherhood of Moose racing” gave us this comment in a recent interview. Quote: “Them G’damn Padlock cowboys think getting on the back of a bull for 8 seconds is a rush. Hell bull riding is for pu$$ies, get half loaded on whiskey and try to ride a moose, there is your adrenalin rush.

Reporting for The Redneck News Network I am Harry Hangnale.

Hope this sheds some light on the subject....ROFLMAO