There’s a reason they aren’t called “cowpeople.” Cowboys are primarily men, but women are trotting into the male arenas, even in a place so steeped in the lore of lonesome roughnecks and heroic maleness as a rodeo ring.

“The girls can really rope well because they’re more patient with the horses – and they ride well,” said Jon Englund, who has practiced team roping for almost 40 years. Long delegated to barrel racing, women, at long last, are taking on the last bastion of Western machismo. And they’re doing it with a two-punch combination: on the horse and on the bleachers.

Since 2005, cowboys across America have been revealing a soft spot for the women in their lives. While they look tough on a bucking bronco, when a cowboy’s mother, sister, wife, daughter or lady friend is ill, they suffer just like the rest of us. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and jeans giant Wrangler teamed up to raise awareness about breast cancer.

The campaign, Tough Enough To Wear Pink, encourages rodeo participants and the audience to wear pink shirts to show their support in the fight against breast cancer. Last year’s Clatsop County Rodeo raised $2,100 for the breast health program at Columbia Memorial Hospital.

“Men are very important in the fight against breast cancer for the women that they advocate for,” said Nancy Magathan, breast health resource coordinator at the hospital.

Men are affected by the disease as loved ones and family members – and directly: one percent of breast cancers occur in men.

“If you’re tough enough to wear pink, then you’re tough enough to support breast cancer awareness,” said Magathan.

Englund, who will be team roping at the rodeo, has his pink shirt ready to go. “It’s a good deal, it really is,” he said about the TETWP campaign.

Maybe next year we’ll ask the cowboys to ride in a bra. Let’s see how tough they really are …

Seaside High School graduate Becca Weaver, last year’s Clatsop County PRCA Queen, makes a lap of the rodeo arena carrying the American flag on her horse, Lindsey.”Oregon has the second highest incidence in the nation for breast cancer. Washington is first,” said Nancy Magathan, breast health resource coordinator at Columbia Memorial Hospital. “Rural areas like Clatsop County generally provide less education about breast cancer and have lower screening rates than urban areas. The cancers that do show up, on average, are more advanced, probably because of that.”

For three years, Magathan has administered a grant from the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation to change that. In collaboration with health care providers, she has made it her job to increase awareness about breast cancer. “Early detection is the best protection,” said Magathan. “Because we can’t prevent breast cancer.”

A breast self-exam, a clinician exam and a mammogram are the three steps to detect malignant lumps before it’s too late. Every woman older than 40 should have regular mammograms. “There is no woman in Clatsop County that would go without a mammogram if they get in touch with us,” said Magathan. “We have ways to pay for any woman to get a mammogram.” Early detection lowers mortality rates by 20 to 30 percent, and women whose cancer is detected early require less treatment.

A calf roper holds his hands up to signal the judges to stop the timer after lassoing a calf, flipping it onto the ground and tying its legs up.Women older than 40 can receive a $20 gas card if they get a mammogram “because we feel so strongly about early detection,” said Magathan. For more information, contact Nancy Magathan at Columbia Memorial Hospital, (503) 325-4321, ext. 5759. Magathan will also have an informational booth at the rodeo.

A bareback rider is bucked backward by a belligerent bronco.A rodeo cowboy prepares to jump off his horse and wrestle a sprinting steer to the dirt.A rodeo clown plays to the crowd at the Clatsop County Fairgrounds while taking a hot dog for a walk.Steers are confined to a crowded pen before being ushered through a chute to begin the steer wrestling competition.