Risking Your Life!!

Here we are, back at the Tucson Rodeo again.  To keep from photo overload, I'm breaking this into two days.  THIS is the bull riding, THE most dangerous sport where you risk your life every time you come out of the gate.  

But first ..... the crew must move these long panels around to make the fence that will hold the bulls in a small area.  

Don't be fooled into thinking that fence is strong enough to hold a bull.  It's not even close.  Something akin to holding a grizzly bear with a piece of thread.  

Same rules here ..... you must mark him out, meaning keep your feet over the point of the shoulder until the bull's front feet hit the ground, assuming of course you don't hit the ground first.

You might also recognize the riders are wearing helmets.  The Professional Bull Riders Association now requires helmets for anyone born after 1994.  They are also required to wear a padded protective vest and leather chaps.  All this is to keep them alive, or mostly alive, when they get stepped on or a bull tries to hook them with his horns.

Obviously, this is not a sport for the faint hearted.  These guys have guts like no other.  Maybe it's the adrenaline rush.  I can tell you I know of not one single bull rider who hasn't had MANY broken bones.

What makes the bull buck?  Number one, these guys are bred for this sport.  Number two, there is a flank strap wrapped tightly around their body at the back legs.  As soon as that flank strap comes off, they quit bucking.  As you can imagine, it takes quite a bit of energy to throw this 1700 - 2000 pound body around the arena.

You kind of have to stare at these images a bit to see where the rider actually is.  If you look bottom right, you'll see the entertainment guy sticking his head out of the barrel.  In fact, I think he's in most every picture.  He's not a rodeo clown, he's the comic relief.

Along with bull riding comes the REAL rodeo clowns.  Their job is simple .... save the riders life.  These guys ... I know they think it's fun, but they put their lives in danger every second to save the riders from the bulls.  No one every said brahma bulls were nice.  They are mean as snot, even if you're on top of a horse trying to usher them out of the arena.

Yup he's actually pushing on the bulls head to get his attention off the rider and on to him until the rider can get up and over the fence.  You'll see the clowns turning really tight corners as they run since bulls cannot make the same tight turn.  It gives the clown a chance to get out of the way and over the fence himself.

I'll finish this up tomorrow and post picture of the snow.  Yessirree ... it snowed in Tucson last night.  Not a lot, but snow is snow!!!