This Is Not A Rodeo....

It seems like forever since I posted to my blog...But I guess it's really only been a few days! My how time flies....

And it's that time of year!
Yep...It's the World Finals of the PBR!!

And I am going to clear up a few misconceptions about bull riding on the Professional Bull Riders circuit.

First.... Only the top bull riders allowed to ride on the Built Ford Tough PBR circuit. These cowboys are not the ones that show up on a rodeo weekend to ride a bull. This is what most of them do for a living. And it's boom or bust.

If you don't make the 8-second ride, you don't get paid. Most of the top riders, however, do have sponsors. I don't know what that pays...Maybe enough to cover traveling expenses. Yes, they have pay their own traveling expenses for each trip.

They don't have contracts like most professional athletes. It is a week to week living. I was watching football a few weeks ago and they announced that one of the starters would be out for a few weeks with a broken toe. Broken Toe?? Mike White broke is neck six months ago and is back on bulls. If you ain't hurt, you ain't riding. That's the fact of the matter.....Separated shoulders, sprained backs, broken riding hands, broken legs (yes, Justin McBride rode in the Finals two years ago with a broken leg), bumps, bruises, and stitches.

It's part of the game. And they do it because they love bull riding. You gotta "Cowboy Up" to make it on this circuit.

And raise your hand if you think this is cruel to the bulls? And if you believe that a rope is tied around the bulls genetilia. And if believe that they use a cattle prod to make them buck. And if you believe that they are raised in small pens on some back road....

All wrong...These bulls are as famous as the riders. Reindeer Dippin', Mossy Oak Mudslinger, Scene of the Crash, Big Bucks...

There is no "stimulation" to make these bulls buck. They are either buckers or they're not. As one stock contractor put it, "Would you perform if you have a rope tied around you genetalia?"

They are usually raised from calves by the stock contractors and are normally considered to be a part of the family...like a dog that you take to a dog show. They are pampered and nurtured and well taken care of. Well, it's true, like it or not. These bulls buck to get the cowboys off their backs, and they love it.

One very famous bull (now retired) Little Yellow Jacket, used to try to get in the trailer to go to the events, even when they weren't gonna take him. He loved it. After he bucked off a cowboy, he would always turn around and look at the crowd and then stroll out through exit chute. He was not mean tempered, he never "went" for a cowboy once he was down.

They have their own personalities, some, like LYJ would usually do the same trip each time out...Two jumps and a turn to the left with a reverse thrown in there is the cowboy wasn't off by then...And he usually was. Some are rank...They will come after a cowboy, or anyone else that gets in the way, once the bothersome rascal is off his back. But usually injuries don't occur when you meet up with a rank bull.

That's where the bullfighters come in. NOT the rodeo clowns...the bullfighters. These guys know where the cowboy is and know where the bull is going. And know how to keep the bull off the cowboy. They run interference. I have seen bull fighters get between a 2,000 bull and a 150 pound cowboy to protect the rider. I have seen them literally cover up a downed cowboy with their own bodies in order to protect them from the bull. I have seen them do heroic things. Because they love it.

Gotta go! The broadcast of the finals is starting in one minute! Catch it on Vs. (Versus), the network formerly knows as OLN.