Ryan McConnel said his bovine adversaries are like rock stars on the Professional Bull Riders tour.
They tour the nation in air-conditioned trailers, are given the best meals and perform under the bright lights while fans cheer them.
"Hey, them bulls are better athletes than we are," said McConnel, of Atoka, Okla., who's in 12th place in the PBR standings going into this weekend's Ariat Invitational at Power Balance Pavilion. "And you take care of the rock stars, and that's what (PBR livestock director) Cody Lambert does."
McConnel, who turned 25 on Friday, doesn't begrudge the bulls. They represent half of his scores. If a bull doesn't perform well, McConnel either gets a re-ride from the judges and has to re-risk his life and limb, or he finishes out of the money.
Each ride is worth up to 100 points – 50 points for the bull and 50 for the rider if he stays on for eight seconds. Four judges award up to 25 points each to the rider and the bull. All four of the judges' scores are combined and then divided by two for the official score.
Half of the ride is based on the performance of the bull and how difficult he is to ride; the other half on how well the rider handled the bull.
Judges look for bulls with a lot of speed and power and the ability to jump high with their front legs and plenty of hind leg kick into the air, which makes their bodies go almost perpendicular to the ground.
Body rolls also score well. A body roll occurs when a bull is in the air and kicks either his hind feet or all four feet to either side. When a bull is really bucking, he increases the degree of difficulty and his scores rise.
Judges look for a rider who is in control and maintains good body position throughout the ride. The rider must stay aboard the bull for eight seconds to receive a score.
The eight-second clock starts when the bull's shoulder or hip crosses the plane of the bucking chutes and stops when the bull rider's hand comes out from underneath the rope or he touches the ground in any way – although on both feet is obviously the preferred method of dismount, but that's rare.
Even high-scoring eight-second rides end violently. The bull rider must ride with one hand and is disqualified if he touches himself or the bull with his off hand during the eight-second ride.
"Bushwacker is the reigning PBR World Champion bull, and he always gets plenty of points because he's just so powerful and fast," McConnel said. "Another bull called Chicken Fried just seems to have my number. But last weekend, I got Yellow Jacket Jr. and was able to score an 88.25 and take third overall in Portland."
Yellow Jacket Jr. is son of three-time PBR World Champion Little Yellow Jacket, who McConnel says is the "Michael Jordan of bulls." Bushwacker has not been ridden since Thiago Paguioto rode him for 89.75 points at the 2009 World Finals, but the bull is recovering from surgery on both hind legs and won't return until early March, his owner Julio Moreno said.
"If Bushwacker wins the title again, he has to be considered one of the best bulls ever," said Moreno, who was from Marysville before recently moving to Oakdale. "He is just so good in the chute, real quiet, where a lot of bulls get nervous. But once the chute opens, oh, man, he really bows in the air, and as soon as his front feet hit the ground, he's right back up in the air."
"These bulls are very much like human professional athletes," said Lambert, one of the founders of the 18-year-old PBR. "They all have so many intangibles that make them great, like the desire to win."
Lambert agrees that Bushwacker has the chance to go down in PBR history as the best ever. But Little Yellow Jacket's feat of three championships has never been matched. Little Yellow Jacket died in November at age 15, an average lifespan for most bulls, Lambert said, although the PBR career is about three years.
Another bull owned by Moreno is Asteroid, this season's top-ranked bull, who will compete this weekend. The competition will pit the top 15 riders against the top 15 bulls.
The marquee matchup is Brazil's Silvano Alves vs. Asteroid. Alves is defending PBR world champion.
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