Millions of people enjoy watching bull riding — both on television and in person — so much so that rodeos will put it at the end of events so people will stay. However, is this sport painful for bulls? Abusive? Does it make the bulls vicious?
There are a lot of myths out there but you may be surprised to learn how these gentle giants really know their jobs and enjoy them.
The American Bucking Bull is its own registered breed with over 200,000 animals in its database right now. Essentially, bull riding involves a rider holding onto what’s called a flat strap, which is wrapped around the bull’s torso and encourages the animal to use its hind legs more for bucking. The goal is for the rider to stay on for eight seconds.
While the bulls do go through training before performance, bucking is in their DNA. If they have no desire to buck, the soft rope around their flank won’t register anything to their brain. This flank rope is placed around their flank, often no tighter than you would tighten your belt. (And for the bull rope that the riders hold onto, judges are watchful about how tightly ropes are pulled, and there are restrictions on how many hands can be on a rope at one time.)
Watch this video and learn how to flank a bull:
As you can see, the rope is not touching the bull’s genitalia. That is a pervasive myth — people think it is placed there to hurt them and make them mad.
Bulls may begin training and competing without riders around age 2 or 3, depending on the owners. This is where they learn to find their buck and display their skills in what is called a futurity. Bulls and their stock contractors must be asked to participate in an actual competition, like PBR (Professional Bull Riding). When in training, a weighted “dummy” is used to help get the bull used to the weight. Doing this keeps them from having too much weight when they are still growing and from getting riders injured due to an inexperienced bull.
These bulls are not pulled from a pasture a few hours before the competition like many people believe. They are picked out meticulously, because half of the final score during a bull-riding event comes from the bull (the other half comes from the rider). This may be surprising to some who are no close to the sport. A bulls’ jumps, twists, and bucks are scored by the judges and put together with the riders’ score for the final score. A high-scoring performance can often be the luck of the draw.
And don’t think those twists are due to sharp spurs, which is a claim made by some anti-rodeo organization. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association notes that, “Bull riding spurs have dull, loosely locked rowels to provide more grip on the animals’ thick loose hide. Sources, including Sisson’s Anatomy of the Domestic Animal and Maximow and Bloom’s Textbook of Histology, indicate that the hides of horses and bulls are much thicker than human skin. A person’s skin is one to two millimeters thick, while a horse’s hide is about five millimeters thick and bull hide is about seven millimeters thick. The animals’ thick hides resist cutting or bruising, and the spurs used at PRCA rodeos usually only ruffle the animals’ hair.”
Justin Cornwell, a promoter and stock contractor with PBR, in a newspaper interview dispelled some common notions about how bulls are treated and handled, including that PRB does not use cattle prods while animals are in the chute, as some activists contend.
“There are absolutely no hot shots or electric pods allowed at any of the PBR events,” Cornwell said. “If I would have one with me, not even using it, I would never be allowed to come back to a PBR event.”
He also said that bull-riding events always have veterinarians on hand in case there are any issues, though injuries to the bull are rare, and it’s unlikely you’d ever see any signs of dehydration, injury, or disease in these animals. Many elite bulls are able to keep competing until they are 8 or 9 years old, and then retirement is often pretty cushy for them.
“Probably 95 percent of the bulls that get retired, they go into I guess the retirement program,” said stock contractor J.W. Hart. “At our ranch, we turn them out, and if we like their breeding and their pedigrees well enough, we’ll start breeding to them. And they just get turned out on calves, and live the simple life with the ladies.”
These bulls can be gentle giants outside of the arena. Yes they are still 1,500-pound animals with a mind of their own, but they do not have the mindset of bucking without the flank strap on them. These bulls are treated like royalty and receive lots of snacks and attention. Some people have started showing off this sweet side of a bull on social media, like Addi with her bull, Hard Labor, a retired PBR bucking bull. Addi shows how gentle this bull is even after years of competing as a professional bucking bull. The bond has been there since Hard Labor was a small calf, and they are the best of friends.
Another great example of how these bulls aren’t vicious all the time is Top Dollar, owned by Courtenay Dehoff (Fancy Lady Cowgirl) and Hookin W Ranch (Laramie Wilson & Kate Perschbacher). Any of the linked accounts will show you what Top Dollar does in his off time and how well he is treated (just like the other bucking bulls).
These bulls know their job, and they love it. They are spoiled and have the best care possible. Cowboys and cowgirls have their animals’ best interest at heart and always want to help them improve. To continue learning more about these creatures, follow the people linked above.
Michelle Miller, the “Farm Babe,” is an internationally recognized keynote speaker, writer, and social media influencer and travels full time to advocate for agriculture. She comes from an Iowa-based row crop and livestock farming background and now resides on a timber farm in North Central Florida.
