Professional Bull Riding

I was lucky enough to win some tickets at work to the Professional Bull Riders Ariat Invitational. We had seats in the Rockstar box at Arco Power Balance Arena, which was a pretty fun experience. The seats were amazing - dead center and right at the perfect level.


PBR Spelled Out In Fire

I forgot my camera at home, so I apologize for the crappy iPhone pictures, but it's all I had.
Cowboys riding bulls:





The Cowboy On The Left Gets Excellent Dismount Points

Today's winner was Marco Eguche from Sao Paolo, Brazil - he had a really impressive last right on "Priceless" - earning the highest marked ride of the weekend. That bull was crazy - the whole crowd was cheering the entire time he was hanging on!
I was pretty amazed at how crazy some of these guys are. First of all, anyone willing to hang onto the back of a bucking 2,000 pound pissed off animal gets crazy points in my book. To make it worse, they have the option of wearing a helmet - something a whole bunch of them choose not to do. Now, I'm all for a good cowboy hat, but it just seems crazy to me not to wear a helmet. In fact, in one of the videos they played to introduce one of the riders he smiled, pointed at his very nice teeth and said "None of these are real". Yeah, that would be because your face slammed into the back of the head of a very angry bull. Maybe wear the helmet with face mask next time... just sayin'.

And, of course, it's not a good event without an up the nose shot:


He Really Does Love Me For This

At first I was a little hesitant at the idea of bull riding on account of the fact that I feel bad for the bulls. Obviously, they're bucking for a reason, right? I mean, who wouldn't be a little mad if someone tied a rope in their general nether regions? Then Mike pointed out something rather curious... even though some of the bulls very clearly had the opportunity to gore the riders, they would prance around, give a few bucks for show and then trot toward the gate that led "backstage". Mike thinks there was the bull equivalent of dog biscuits back there. It actually got a little funny to watch at that point... they seriously perked up once they were rid of their rider.

All in all, it was a really fun event - I'm glad we had the chance to go and I have a new found respect for these crazy cowboys!