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A partnership between rider and bullJul 20, 2009 (Baker City Herald - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- By NATHAN HELLMAN Baker City Herald Before the Baker Elks Blowout Bull Riding kicked off Saturday night, Colby Reilly was giving the cowboy's sermon on the relationship between a rider and bull. "He can't react to you, you have to react to him," said Reilly, a 22-year-old from Stratford, Wash. "He's your dance partner and you have to follow it." Once he fired out of the gates on bull No. 516 -- he said the name was unimportant to him -- Reilly put his words to the test. He let old 516 lead the way, and he followed, all right. Actually, he tangoed with the 1,800-pound monster better than any other rider on his way to a score of 86 in the opening round and the 2009 Blowout Bull Riding championship. But Reilly was not the only rider preaching the virtues of a rider-bull partnership. Another of Saturday's top performers, Vic Dubray, has been riding bulls for the last 30 years and felt strongly about how the rider and bull depend on one another. "It's a partnership," said Dubray, 41, of Pendleton. "A lot of people think that it's a challenge -- the rider versus the bull -- but it's actually a partnership." Dubray, who has competed in all 15 Blowout Bull Riding events and proudly called himself "the oldest guy here," demonstrated his veteran wisdom as he spoke about how sometimes a cowboy and a bull just mesh. And sometime it's just the opposite. "You hear about a bull rider saying, 'That one just fits my style,' " said Dubray, who won the Blowout in 1999. "Style plays a big part." Dubray said much of success depends on this jiving of styles. Personally, he said he prefers "big bulls that buck hard." When he gets one of those, his future becomes much clearer. "There have been bulls throughout my career that when I draw them I know I'm going to make money," Dubray said with a smile. For most of the riders at the Baker City Fairgrounds Saturday night, there seemed to be little or no ritual once they draw a bull. The only step some cowboys said they take is quickly glancing at the bull they have drawn to identify him from the rest. Otherwise, there is no touching, no talking and no thinking about the bull. Charlie Miller said his lone post-draw ritual if he is unfamiliar with a bull is walking around the area where all the riders dress and prepare to seek any pointers from those who have toiled with that particular bull before. "If you don't know him, you like to see him and ask guys about him," said Miller, a 23-year-old from Prineville who is injured but came in support of his traveling partner Seth Reno. Perched atop one of the benches before the rodeo in his red checkered shirt and white cowboy hat, Miller looked like more the pensive type. And the philosophies on bull riding he espoused proved that he doesn't just look the part. "It's not a fear, it's a respect," Miller said about how riders should feel toward the bull. "When you start getting scared, that's when you get hurt." With a wrist and elbow injury he suffered a few months ago at a Montana rodeo, Miller knows that getting hurt is certainly a part of the sport. But his theory is that once "bad thoughts" begin to fester in your mind, those are the long nights when you either fare poorly or get injured. "When you just show up with your mind in the right place and thinking about really taking home some money, you do a lot better," Miller said. Daniel M. Wegner, a psychologist at Harvard, recently published a study that corroborates some of Miller's points about bull riding. His study, titled "How to Think, Say, or Do Precisely the Worst Thing for Any Occasion," was released earlier this July. In the study, Wegner remarks that "having the worst thing come to mind, in some circumstances, might increase the likelihood that it will happen." These mistakes, which Wegner calls ironic errors, happen in daily life, but are also common in almost every sport. It's like the shortstop who misplays a grounder in the second inning and then lets it weigh on his mind for the rest of the game. Then in the ninth inning another high-speed grounder is sent his way, and once again it deflects off his glove for an error. Dallee Mason, a 21-year-old from Weiser, Idaho, said that maintaining a clear mindset is certainly the only way to go in a sport that depends on chance as much as bull riding. Echoing the words of Reilly, Mason said it's all about knowing that the bull is going to lead and the cowboy must follow as best as possible. "They lead and you follow," Mason said, making the sport seem simple and straightforward. "They'll just kick hard and get it on." To see more of the Baker City Herald or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.bakercityherald.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Baker City Herald, Ore. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |