Among the vaqueros [cowboys], and even among persons of distinction, el coleo (tailing) is a much nobler exercise than the preceding, and is also generally reserved for days of festivity. For this sport the most untractable ox or bull is turned loose upon a level common, when all the parties who propose to join in the amusement, being already mounted, start off in pursuit of him. The most successful rider, as soon as he gets near enough to the bull, seizes him by the tail, and with a sudden maneuver, whirls him topsy-turvy upon the plain — to the no little risk of breaking his own neck, should his horse stumble or be tripped by the legs of the falling bull.

Commerce of the Prairies (1831–1839), Chapter 12 Government of New Mexico