PILESGROVE -- A cowboy wedges his hand into a flat braided rope on top of a bull. He raises a hand in the air and nods, signaling the crew to open the chutes.

"Yaaaah!" he yells.

A bucking bronc explodes from the chute. Dust flies as the rider hangs on tight, being jerked side to side, forward and back. The crowd holds its breath as the 1,200-pound beast tries to buck him off. A timer ticks to eight seconds and the buzzer sounds. The arena erupts.

The cowboy's face twists into a pained grin as he pulls his hand from the rope and jumps from the animal's back, throwing his hands up.

"This is the ultimate contact sport," Grant Harris, fourth-generation owner and operator of Cowtown, New Jersey's only weekly rodeo, says with a smile.

Every Saturday night for the past 62 years, thousands of spectators, dozens of cowboys and even more supporters come to Pilesgrove in Salem County to watch and participate in one of America's oldest sports.

Despite its draw and the close-knit community that has been built up around it, the rodeo is not without dangers and harsh criticism.

On Memorial Day weekend, Cowtown fans and family witnessed its first fatality when a 19-year-old rider was thrown from his bareback horse and trampled. A week later, in the hours leading up to show time, Harris followed the same routine he has for decades.

Round 'Em Up

Twenty miles outside of Wilmington, Delaware, just off one of the last exits on the New Jersey Turnpike in Salem County sit hundreds of acres that have been in the Harris family for the past century. It's there that Harris and his crew spend most of their day on horseback in the pastures, wrangling up the dozens of animals they'll use for the Saturday night show.

Billed as "the oldest weekly running rodeo in the USA," Cowtown got its start in 1926 from Howard Harris Sr. and his son Howard "Stoney" Harris Jr. After about a decade, shows were put on hold at the start of World War II but resumed again in 1955. A few years later, national television exposure catapulted the rodeo into the spotlight and a 4,000-seat stadium to accommodate the crowds -- the one that sits in Pilesgrove today -- was built.

The care and management of Cowtown was passed down to Grant Harris after he purchased parts of the property from his father.

"You don't inherit anything in this family," Harris said. "In this family you gotta buy it."

Every weekend, thousands of bargain hunters flock to another part of Harris' property, the but as the sun begins to set, the market packs up and the pickup trucks and horse trailers start rolling in.

By the time 7:30 p.m. approaches, the arena fills with spectators and the cowboys bow their heads one last time at Cowboy Church before they make their way to the chutes.

While New Jersey may not be the first place people associate with rodeos, riders from throughout the country make the trip to take a turn in the arena.

"Y'all got a hell of a rodeo here in Jersey," said Chance Hays, a rider from Oklahoma who made his way out to Cowtown. "Jersey ain't no joke."

Saddle up, it's time to ride

While Cowtown may be a little-known attraction to many New Jersey residents, for cowboys across the country it's a nationally known stop on the rodeo circuit -- one of about 600 annually and one of only a few held weekly, according to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA).

Rodeo competitions started as a natural extension of the daily challenges that cowboys faced on the ranch -- roping calves and breaking broncs into saddle horses.

Today, rodeos have morphed into a sporting event designed to test the speed, reflexes and coordination of the cowboys. Each Saturday, Cowtown features the same seven events that have kept fans in the stands over the years, including bareback bronc riding, team roping, steer wrestling, and what Harris listed as the unanimous crowd favorite -- bull riding.

Just as baseball has the MLB and football the NFL, the rodeo has the PRCA. The association not only provides judges and organizes competitors' entrances, it also sets the rules for on-site competitions -- standards that address handling of the livestock, equipment and facilities. According to the PRCA, both an ambulance for the riders and a veterinarian for the livestock must be present during any event.

Despite the oversight, Cowtown has seen its share of criticism over the years -- and more so recently after the death of Coy Lutz on May 28.

Dangers and Criticism

Lutz, of Howard, Pennsylvania, and a member of the University of Tennessee at Martin's rodeo team, was a regular in Cowtown's chutes. But during the 62nd opening weekend, Lutz was thrown from his bronco and fatally stomped.

After his death, animal rights group SHARK called for the New Jersey State Police to investigate the incident, claiming that the rodeo mistreats its animals and alleged that the bronco may have been shocked, causing its violent bucking and ultimately Lutz's death.

Cowtown staff claim that is not, and never has been, the case and police ruled the death an accident.

"I won't allow any of my animals to be intentionally abused," Harris said at the time.

"Caring for the animals is the heart and soul of what we do," Grant said at his farm a few days later. "It's why we're here. I tell everyone I have 500 kids I gotta take care of."

However, this isn't the first time animal rights groups have looked into practices at Cowtown. Three summers ago, a 9-year-old bucking horse died. Harris said a veterinarian determined it was an aneurysm in his heart, but the same activist group, SHARK, claimed otherwise, saying the horse was shocked with an electric prod.

They posted a video on YouTube showing the horse's performance followed by it collapsing. A grainy image highlighted in the video shows what appears to be a prod behind the chute area, however, the NJ SPCA investigated the animal's death and ruled there was "no conclusive evidence" that an electric prod was used at the time.

On other occasions, Harris said, he has had protesters standing outside Cowtown.

"They were talking about an event that we don't even have here so I had to go talk to them, straighten that part out at least," Harris said, adding that, afterward, he invited them in to watch.

"What a lot of people just don't understand is that these animals see rodeo action maybe two times a month for four months out of the year," he said. "What other equine activity allows for these animals to be happy, healthy and competing for 30-plus years?"

In addition, the PRCA stated that on-site veterinarians have participated in surveys through the years showing the injury rate to rodeo livestock to be less than five-hundredths of one percent.

"They think these animals have to be hurting to buck, but that's just what wild animals do," Harris said.

Buck Wild

Every bull and bronc is unique in its bucking habits, darting in different directions, spinning, or kicking in a straight line. Cowboys are scored based on how long they can hang on to the bucking animals and how rowdy the animals are.

"These are pretty much domesticated wild animals," said Harris. "We feed them and care for them, but they aren't trained. We can't control how they perform and they're going to do what they want. We can plan for them to buck a certain way, but they won't always do that."

This uncontrollable factor of the animals is what leads to the accidents and mishaps associated with rodeo life.

"The day that Coy was riding he came right up to me and asked what horse he had," Harris somberly remembered. "He was all excited and I told him exactly what he wanted to know. I told him how he bucked and how he acted."

Unfortunately, this time the horse Coy Lutz was assigned bucked differently, throwing him from the horse.

"His death was a first here," Harris added, pausing, "and I damn sure hope it's a last."

No matter the precautions taken, the chance for injuries is high when involving 1,200- to 1,800-pound animals.

Lauren Ehrlich, the only female bull rider in the line-up the week after Lutz's death, lasted a few seconds before she was bucked and stomped.

Luckily for the 21-year-old, bull fighters -- men dressed in bright colors and face paint -- stepped in to distract the bull so she could get out of the way.

Ehrlich made her way to the EMT crew, face bloody and jeans ripped. She needed stitches in her forehead and a bruise was already beginning to show on her thigh.

"You do it for the love of the sport," she said. "I'm not really happy with it right now, obviously, but I've been bull riding for three years and have been getting back into horses."

Injuries like Ehrlich's are what make spectators, especially parents of the riders, nervous -- so much so that they sometimes don't even go to watch.

Tim Shanahan, a Flemington resident, has been making his way around the East Coast for the past four years riding in rodeos, missing one fan in particular in the stands.

"His mom refuses to watch," said his father Kevin. "I have to call her after it's done to tell her how he did. She just won't watch. But in her defense, you definitely have to be laid back to let your kids do this."

"We're pretty much frequent flyers at the emergency room," he added.

Brendan McGrail, a 19-year-old from Williamstown, calls himself lucky for having no major injuries yet, saying it's a matter of when -- not if -- riders are going to get hurt.

"It's just a part of the sport," he said. "But it's great because if you do get hurt, you have a big family waiting outside of the arena cheering you on and there to help you."

Community of Riders

Even without a nervous parent, significant other, or single familiar fan in the stands, each rider has a whole family looking out for them.

"These boys are all like a big family," said Kevin Shanahan as he watched his son kick around a hacky-sack with a group of riders next to the chutes. "If Tim ever needed anything, these guys would have his back in a heartbeat. These are the guys I'd want to have his back."

With any sport comes the competitive nature, but for the cowboys riding in rodeos they aren't up against each other, they're up against the animals.

"When you're out there, it's you against the animal and only one of you is gonna win," said Harris. "All the riders know what it's like and they want each other to do well. They're cheering you on no matter what."

As the night of the rodeo progressed, cowboys sat on top of the chutes, on the gates, and climbed the stairs of the catwalk to get a better view of their friends taking turns against the bucking bulls and broncs, cheering them on when the eight-second buzzer sounded, and cringing when the buckers got the best of them.

"Rodeos ain't just about riding bulls and wearing boots," said Harris. "It's a sport and a community and we're always open to seeing new faces around here."

Caitlyn Stulpin may be reached at cstulpin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @caitstulpin. Find NJ.com on Facebook.