FORT WORTH, Texas (dpa) – Cramped into an iron-barred chute, the massive black bull snorts and grunts. The cowboy gingerly lowers himself from the fence on to the animal’s broad back.
His gloved hand grabs the leather rein. He holds on for dear life. The gate opens and the bull surges forward.The crowd in the Will Rogers Coliseum in Fort Worth erupts. The bull paws the ground, then in turn leaps, bucks, grunts and “sunflowers” in the air.The cowboy grips even tighter on the leather strap, his hat already flown from his head on to the sand in the arena. A bell rings, signalling that eight seconds have passed. Clowns distract the bull, the breathless cowboy leaps from the bull’s back in a wide arc. He dusts the sand from his jeans and goes to retrieve his hat. The crowd is in an uproar. “84 points”, screams the rodeo announcer into the microphone.Bullriding, as displayed here at the famous Stockshow Rodeo in the north Texas town of Fort Worth, is the top discipline in any rodeo, requiring ice-cool nerves of its participants. The spectacle looks dangerous even from the bleachers, but behind the scenes, the whole business is enough to drive abject fear into any spectator brave enough to visit.Close up, the bulls look like monsters. They have names like Jump, Bad Moon, Warrior, Wild Thing, Bad Boy, Wooly Bully or Boom Shakala. The riders, gifted, if that is the word, with a spirit of adventure and courage, are allowed to hold on with one hand and are required to stay on the bull’s back for eight seconds to score points.Rodeo is enjoying increasing popularity and shows like the Stockshow draw thousands of fans a year to the rodeo rings. They offer the American audiences a taste of the Old West, a hard man’s world where toughness and bravery, dependability and friendship were of paramount importance. The fans often wear Wild West clothing – although most of them are “townies” and have nothing in the least to do with horses or cattle.At the same time rodeo is also big business. The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) organises more than 750 such events a year in the United States and Canada, the finals of the rodeo competitions take place in Las Vegas. According to the PRCA, total prize money for the whole rodeo tour amounted to 9.9 million dollars in 1980 and today tops 30 million dollars.Undisputed stars of the rodeo ring are the bullriders, cowboys with nerves of steel, wiry, usually bandy-legged and only of average height or even less. Most of them are polite, short-haired country kids. They spend almost three-quarters of the year on the strenuous and often dangerous rodeo tour, but some of them are even awarded stipendiums from colleges. The best fifteen bullriders make up the final competition in Las Vegas.One of these is Texan Blu Bryant. “I don’t know what it’s like when you take drugs. But to ride in the finals is definitely better than any drug. You just react. You don’t think consciously during the ride. After you’ve been riding bulls for years, the whole things is just reaction. It just happens. The main thing is balance and using your brain.”Rodeos are a piece of pure Americana, festivals for the people. First of all, the national anthem is played, then the fans stand to attention, misty-eyed, one hand on their hearts, their Stetsons in the other. Americans are proud of their nation and rodeo fans just that bit prouder. In Fort Worth Coliseum, the arena is bedecked with garlands, flags and banners in the national colours of red, white and blue.The crowd is loud and the announcer’s voice echoes incessantly through the oversized loudspeakers. The stadium reeks of horse-sweat and droppings. The area holds some 6,000 spectators, all drinking beer, cola and eating peanuts, popcorn and hot dogs.Chris Shrivers was the first bullrider in history to reach one million dollars in prize money, in January of this year. But only the big stars can really earn top dollar. Few of the 12,000 registered bullriders are full-time professionals and the expensive insurance required for this dangerous sport swallows a considerable portion of any prize monies. The young cowboys regularly suffer serious injuries, concussions, broken bones, paralysis and even death.One of the most famous bullriders of all time was Lane Frost, to whom a memorial has been erected. He could ride bulls that had unseated all other bullriders before him. In 1989, at the Cheyenne Rodeo he was finally killed by such a bull. He was 24 years old.
