A show hunter goes around the ring with steady rhythm and a quiet submission, presenting a harmonious, serene picture. In stark contrast, the main ring at a Professional Bull Riders’ Association event is a battleground of explosive discord.
The meaner the bull, the higher the score, the more money the rider wins if he sticks for eight seconds. In short, the quieter the better for show hunters, the wilder the better for bulls.
Ed and Parker Minchin of Vass have bred, trained, owned and shown hunters successfully for decades. They still enjoy the show horses, but have recently invested in some very different show stock — bucking bulls.
The Minchins have been rodeo fans for years.
“We always have wanted bulls that could be PBR bucking bulls,” Parker Minchin said. “The payouts in the futurities and the classics had gotten so good, and the prices for bulls already bucking at the PBR level was skyrocketing.”
They bumped into an old friend from the hunter world, Liz King, who married cutting horse trainer Jerry King of Parkton. A partnership was formed, King and Minchin Bucking Stock, with former world champion bull rider Jerome Davis of Archdale as consultant. Other partners have joined the investment group, including hunter judge Sue Ashe of Florida and prominent show manager Glenn Petty of Raleigh, and the syndicate is off and running … er, bucking.
Their first bull, named Icicle because he was born on a 14-below-zero night in Texas and was found stuck to the ground, is in training at Jerome Davis’ Diamond D Ranch. Icicle, now 4, has been bucking at some lower level PBR events and local rodeos to prep for the classic competitions this summer.
Classics, Minchin explained, are competitions for 3- and 4-year-old bulls. They buck with a rider on, and are scored on their performance. Only 45 are accepted into a classic competition, and events are so oversubscribed there is a draw to get in.
“There are so many people wanting to do the classic series now,” Minchin said. “The one in Texas coming up had 107 entries. We didn’t get in.”
Futurities, designed for 2-year-old bulls, employ a small remote-controlled box instead of a rider, and the youngsters buck for six seconds instead of eight. The group’s 2-year-old prospect, Just LeDoux It, won $2,000 recently by placing third in the American Bucking Bulls, Inc. futurity competition in Charlotte.
“They are supposed to come out of the chute and turn and buck, and are judged on buck, kick, spin, intensity, and difficulty by four judges on a one-25 scale,” Minchin said. “A really good score in the futurities is in the mid 80s, and our 2-year-old was third with a good score in the 80s.”
Just LeDoux It will compete again in August, with a goal of qualifying for the ABBI finals in Las Vegas this fall.
The syndicate also owns a yearling, Blue By You, which will enter the futurities next year. And it recently bought a heifer to breed. As in horses, it’s all about blood lines.
“We are convinced that a good heifer will be as big a key in the breeding of bucking bulls as a good mare is in the breeding of horses,” Minchin said. “It is just in the past few years that they have even known how any of the bulls are bred … . You breed for heart and try, the good ones buck on and on for years.”
There are many similarities and contrasts in managing sport horses and sport bulls.
“They are very much like futurity horses, in that you do only what is needed to get them ready,” Minchin said, adding that they plan to build stock chutes and buy a remote-controlled bucking dummy in the near future.
“They are bred to buck so you don’t need to teach them that. Sometimes you have to get them turning back faster or more comfortable in the chute,” Minchin said. “The object is for the bulls to come out of the chute and turn back one direction or the other and spin and kick hard. Changing directions is good. What is not good is if they travel too far across the arena in the process. That is why you see bulls run and jump really high but continue forward and they get a low score and the people watching always boo.”
The bulls live out, but are herded into chutes with a good cow horse or four-wheeler, Minchin said. They are fed like a race horse, with high quality grain and alfalfa hay. Good management is essential, and the bulls are treated like athletes, with chiropractic treatment and joint supplements.
“Liz and Jerry have a chute they use for their cutting cattle, and one of the bucking bulls was in it the other day and moved it when he did not want them messing with him. Just started walking, chute and all!” Minchin said. “We will have to build ones that are bucking bull proof!
“All in all it is evolving so fast and getting to be such a big business that it will end up costing just like horses eventually, but we are getting in on the beginning of it all. The stock contractors are just starting to sell bulls to people and charge for bucking them, feeding them and hauling them. It is the beginning of a big growth in the sport.”
