Tomboy In The Big City
A little background before getting into the whole, “Why The HELL Do You Want To Ride A Bull” bit. Why is this little walk down memory lane important? Welp, it paints a pretty good picture of a person’s mental state when having the desire to hop on a bull and ride it out for 8 seconds.
3 Bull Riding Fun Facts:
Bulls are viewed as athletes.
Bulls start their career at 2 or 3 until they’re around 10 years old.
Bulls are usually 1,500 lbs or more.
Riding a bull might be on your bucket list, but know what you're getting yourself into... I thought I did. Even so, there were 3 vitally important mistakes I'd made that I wished I wouldn't have done... it will help you "not die" if you ever decide to ride a bull.
Growing up in the Midwest, I've always considered myself a bit of a Tomboy. Don't get me wrong, my favorite color is pink. But there is something about grit...something about getting your hands dirty that just strikes fire in your soul.
I grew up surrounded by more cattle than people. I knew that the smell of manure was the scent of money. I knew that bottle-feeding calves as a child weren’t just a way to earn a few extra bucks, it was my family's business.
Be that as it may, I never spent much time around bulls. In fact, I never got the courage to climb on such a powerful beast until I hit rock bottom. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
I parted ways with my hometown roots and hit the big city of Sioux Falls. I'd replaced my waders with Adidas shoes, got my bachelor's degree in Exercise Science and spent my hours in the gym. After outgrowing that SoDak city, my husband and I found our way to Boise, Idaho. Fun place if you ever get the chance to visit or live.
Anyways, SoDak still tugged at our hearts... well, actually our family. I truly believe that Dustin and I could be happy most anywhere, we needed to be closer to our family.
Hitting Rock Bottom
You know, the type of family that had your back when you fell hard on your ass and would call you out when you botched and complained too much about being down on your luck. The type of family that would give you a hard smack when you needed a wake-up call.
The Great Recession hit. Dustin and I found ourselves with not only one housing payment we could hardly afford but rather three. To top it off, I found myself in between jobs and living with my mom (thanks Mom BTW!) while my husband tried to find a decent job closer to our "main" home.
Back to the family farm, I went. They had my back. They listened to me when I admitted to needing some cash and would work for it. So, they tossed me into the same grain bin I'd spent parts of my childhood scooping out. I fixed fence in knee-high shit. I flipped irrigation gates at the butt crack of dawn. I sorted, branded and treated cattle until those callouses that I'd had on my hands returned, until the blisters on my heels from my work boots hardened, and until I remembered what it was like to wake up with the sun.
I found myself vomiting from heat exhaustion, curled up by a toilet that was apparently the watering hole for a massive spider, covered in liquid fertilizer. I ended a call with my lawyer after he gave me the news that my husband and I could lose our house...which meant financial ruin and we'd likely have to file for bankruptcy...
My family was there for me, ready for me to pull my head out of my ass and start living. Yes, I may lose everything. Yes, my husband and I were living hundreds of miles away because we must to make ends meet. Yes, I had a crappy year.
If There Was Ever A Time To Bull Ride, Now Was It
I was still as stubborn and ferocious as ever. So, if there was ever a time to climb onto a bull and do something that made me feel alive, now was it.
It didn’t take much to convince my brother, Ryan (he used to ride), and his old riding buddies to round up some bulls that needed practice carrying a rider. As I said, I had the kind of family that would make sure I got a wake-up call when I needed one. So it wasn’t long before we were jamming out to some country music, driving West River to a ranch south of Colome, SD. We met up with some folks who own Shippy Rodeo Bulls. They breed bulls for specifically for bull riding.
Shippy Rodeo Directions
How Not To Die When Bull Riding
Cowboy Cowgirl Garb
Bullet proof vest
Leather chaps
Boots (Mine were pink. Obviously)
Helmet
My brother lent me his attire. He used to ride quite a bit back in the day, before the kiddos came along. Anyways, there is something about being handed a bulletproof vest and told I'd best wear it that things become real - real fast. WTF was I thinking crossed my mind repeatedly. Followed promptly by, why the eff not? What did I have to lose? Still, it didn’t make watching the other riders any easier. They were getting tossed around like rag dolls.
Ryan, Shippy folks, and their buddies coached me as I watched, offering helpful tidbits like how not to get trampled by the bull or if my hand gets stuck in the ropes. So, you know, all those reassuring things you don't want to hear...but need to know.
Girl Meets Bull
Finally, it was my turn. I fought the urge to both run to the bull (like I had something to prove) and not wet myself.
“Polar Express is ready for ya,” one of the Shippy folks told me.
I managed to go forward, climb over the fence, and stare down at the beast. It looked like such a little thing (insert sarcasm). Wonder how “thural breed” of Polar Express is? Welp, he is a maternal brother to our good bulls #S44 Double Agent & #S32 Mama's Boy - QUALIFIED FOR THE 2009 ABBI Futurity Finals in Las Vegas!!
I took a breath, swung my leg over the rail and... tried not to freak-out.
Now, I've ridden a horse bareback so that feeling of the rough hide under me was "normal." But the feel of the muscles-the sheer bulk- of the bull was shocking. I knew things creatures were not to be messed with. I'd seen them mow over cowboys before. I'd watched my brother go head to head with one when he was on a four-wheeler and it left the wheeler destroyed. I'd seen what these beasts could do...
...and now I felt it. I felt it under me as the guys went to work getting the bull ready for riding. After prepping the bull, they helped me get positioned, advising me that my strength was in my legs and to squeeze as tight as I could all while they placed a rope around my hand securing me to the beast.
Now, I was in the stall and the bull, for all intents and purposes was trapped but that didn’t stop him from trying to ram through the gate.
Polar Express Is a Mother-
HOLY SHIT! MOTHER OF HELL!!
The sudden and sheer force the animal had was brilliant and terrifying...and exceptionally exciting. With that surge of adrenaline roaring through my veins, I wanted to see what I could do.
I took a quick beat. I tightened my grip.
"Tell Dusty I love him," I said, looking up at Mark, one of my brother’s friends who was helping me get situated on the bull.
I glance between the rails. My brother was acting as the clown. For those who may not know, the clowns are dressed up as such to keep the crowd entertained. (He wasn’t dressed to the nines today because we were just practicing.) Clowns are your first line of protection-distraction- for you. When you inevitably get bucked off, that bull is still fired up and will not hesitate to charge you. Now, after being tossed around and knocked to the ground, you'll likely not have your waits about you yet. The clown gives you an extra second to react and get to safety... by putting themselves between you and the bull.
That was my brother.
I looked back down at my hand that was tethered to the bull, tightened my grip and nodded...
Trying Not To Die While Bull Riding
I remember expecting the bull to run out (or at least take a couple freaking running bounds) to clear the stall. Nope. I was wrong.
Mistake #1: I Thought I Knew What The Bull Would Do
It tricked me. The shit pivoted and BUCKED. Right off the get-go. One second I was parallel in the stall and the next I was perpendicular. How the eff did Polar Express move so fast!?!
I felt myself plowed forward, get bitch-slapped and jarred back. JARED-THE-EFF BACK.
It was a "fun" out of body experience. By the time I realized I was no longer going forward, but backward instead, I was a goner. No matter how much strength I had in my legs would keep me from staying on.
Mistake #2: Falling Is An Artform But Getting Up Is Moreso
To this day I don't know how my hand didn't get tangled up in the rope. I thank God anyway.
There I was, tumbling to the ground thinking, “I need to get the hell out of the way.”
I’d watched my fair share of riders get mowed over at PBR and didn’t want to make an emergency trip to the hospital. So, the second I crashed into the hard-HARD-ground, I was already scrambling to get up.
That was a mistake.
Mistake #3 – The Big One – Focusing On Me Instead Of The Bull
Big mistake. Apparently, Polar Express wasn’t done with me yet.
I didn't necessarily recall getting kicked in the ass, but rather an electric shock bolting up my backside, twisting around my spine, and settling at the base of my head.
I. Could. Not. Move.
I collapsed. I honestly thought I was paralyzed.
Now, in the back of my mind, I knew that I was still very much in danger. I knew I was still in a pen with a pissed off bull. I knew that my brother was putting his life on the line to keep the beast from charging me. I knew an assortment of horrifying scenarios that could unravel if I didn’t pull myself up off the ground...
…And such was life. I'd have to dust myself off later. Because right now I couldn't focus on all the things I couldn't control- like the bull charging my way (or that I was living with my mom, drowning in debt, unsure when I would see my husband again...) or any number of things weighing me down. I just needed to find the strength to stand up and focus on one problem at a time.
Guys, the video of me riding the Polar Express is hilarious. I absolutely got my butt handed to me. Like just wow. My ride was pathetic. And I got the darkest, the most purple-black bruise on my right butt cheek that was in the perfect shape of a hoof. Also, I got crap about lasting one whole second on the bull.
But I rode.
Date Sarah First Checked off BULL RIDING from her Bucket List: April 26, 2009
Very Spicy!
