Posted on 02/21/2019 8:10:15 PM PST by CaliforniaCraftBeer
I rode a bull in a Memorial Day weekend rodeo, in Pinetop, AZ, when I was 18 and bulletproof. I stayed on the bull for the obligatory 8 seconds but scored a big fat zero because I was disqualified by the scoring judge, seeing how I flopped around like a rag doll and let my non-gripping hand slap the bull. At an intermission, the organizers tied $20 bills to a bull’s horns and let the bull loose in the arena. My friend and I were the only knuckleheads to take up the challenge. Running alongside the bull was exhilarating but my sense of preservation would not allow me to reach in and touch the bull’s horn in order to snatch one of the $20s. My friend did grab a $20, but got smacked in the face by the bull, head butting him. He had to go to the emergency room and learned he had a broken nose. The charge was $80 in 1975 dollars. Later in life, I remembered that lesson and took up a statistically safer sport- skydiving.
These people are impressively crazy and brave at the same time.
Somehow, I don’t see rodeo pinball taking off, any more than snatching the $20 bill off the horns of a raging bull did, back in my day. Good initiative, bad judgment! MERICA!
That was quite possibly one of the most insane things I have ever seen in my life.
There is something wrong with those people.
I’m pretty crazy
Man there were women out there too
That bull went for first person and then came back and got him again
I was chase by a Brahma bull....damn high shouldered boy for the offense of being in his pasture on the way to our swimming hole and old plantation home ruins where we hung out
He’d pick one of us and man you had to run and get over that barb wire fence with him breathing down her neck
Ages 10-14
Some bulls are truly gentle....my girlfriend from Abilene could stand on the back of hers while he walked around
Others not so sweet
Tropical bulls are ill tempered it always seemed to me
Isn't it standard operating procedure to clamp the bull's testicles prior to letting it loose, so as to guarantee that it's irrascible?
Regards,
My wife and I stayed at a dairy farm for a few days up in Vermont. They had a few hundred cows there.
One day it just rained all day, nothing to do, so I asked if I could explore the property, and the farmer said sure, go anywhere you want...he suggested if I was interested, to take a look at their prize bull.
So, it was pouring rain and all mud, so I put on rain gear and walked down to where there was a structure with dozens of cows milling about. They stopped and regarded me, gazing with their uninterested look as they chewed, but sure enough, there was the bull, his head sticking FAR up above the backs of the cows.
And he had is eyes on me.
It wasn’t the dull, bored, disinterested look of the cows, it was a laser-focus, hostile look that made me fee distinctly uncomfortable.
And it didn’t waver during the fifteen minutes I was poking around. I haven’t spent much time around livestock, but I would wager that bull was somewhere between 1000-1500 lbs. And it was all muscle.
As I walked around, I could FEEL the thing looking at me, and when I turned around...it sure was. At one point, it put its front legs on top of some structure in the pen, and with an immediate feeling of danger, I thought “Jesus Christ. That thing can get out of there!” Then it went over to the gate and began pounding its head against the gate, and I thought “If that thing were to get out, I would be a grease spot.”
I decided I had enough sightseeing and left.
That was extremely intimidating.
A couple of times I have been caught in the ocean in water that was far beyond my ability to fight. I was completely at the mercy of the ocean. I have a huge amount of respect for the power of the ocean, and never, ever take it for granted.
But after seeing that steer, then watching the video of these people being tossed into the air like...rags...made me feel that same kind of respect I have for the ocean...for the power of a bull.
Just guessing you don’t hang your hat in Cowboy Country.
You put together a bull and a lot of young cowboys trying to impress their tight-jeans girlfriends ... You pretty much get a string of insanity that’s been going on for, oh, about 150 years.
Hole ‘n One’s video... Imagine trying to sketch that like the Tyson fight, hi1!...I’ve done some close-quarter bullwork and that last guy was *not* properly screened for that line-dancing crowd, he is a killa. Note the backfield didn’t show alarm.. is this a gyp? Caller seemed unaware the wrong bull was sent out.
I work the chutes at the annual PRCA Rodeo in our city. Usually the same bulls that have just launched a cowboy are gentle in the chutes. But NOT always. Sometimes they smash and bend the six-inch pipe that the chutes are made of. Wow.
There’s no way any of us OR the cowboys would play “pinball” or a similar game called “Mexican poker.”
I’ve worked auction gates and could cat-jump straight up out of the way of a mad bull accidentally let past, and there is no f’n way I would play this, even at age 18.
I’ve been around cattle my entire life and have been to hundreds of rodeos and I’ve never seen this performed. I’ve seen other events/stunts that I thought were stupid, but this is probably the stupidest.
I don’t, though there is much about “Cowboy Culture” that I appreciate.
THAT was not one of them, but hey...it is their lives!
None of the circuit rodeo riders joined my friend and me for the snatch the $20 bills from the bull’s horns event that day. That one obvious omission should have been a clue. Later I was assigned a job in the calf roping event. I twisted the tail of each calf prior to release, to give it a little incentive to bolt- fast, out of the pen. I would often be rewarded with a bowel blast.
There are old pilots, and bold pilots, but not many old bold pilots.
Today, for thrills- I walk up and down the Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail. Life’s good.
Thanks for chiming in oldplayer. ;0)
I’m starting to think the tossed guys are pro Clowns, with shark mail under their clothes, and this is an *extreme* show. No way in hell could this pass muster with insurers, no matter how waivers were signed.
EXACTLY. “It’s your life” is what we’re trying to preserve out here in the West.
Your life doesn’t belong to the government, or to your nosy neighbor.
Was at npr nationals in vegas early 80s...they had a contest with the clowns in a ring trying to avoid this angry bull...one clown was running around a circular barrel teasing the bull...but his tennis shoes slipped just a bit...the bull hooked him with one horn and flipped the guy up...the clown came down in a heap and wasnt moving much...the bull then lowered his horns and drove into the fallen clowns back....twice...they finally distracted the bull..and got an ambulance in the ring to haul the injured clown off..one more charge could have killed the clown.
Even worse than the Ring of Fear.
Bulls buck. It’s a given there’d be trouble.
While not stupid in the dangerous sense, when I first moved to Pinnacle, NC a while back I was introduced to "Cow Bingo". The local elementary school would paint their field to resemble a huge bingo card. Then they'd turn a cow loose on it and bet which square it would crap on. Pretty hilarious stuff and a great fund raiser for the school. d;^)
Concerning the OP's original subject, put me in for a coupla bills. Looks like a great way to help do a little maintenance of the gene pool.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.