WASHINGTON – For better or for worse, they are the longest eight seconds of your life. When a giant beast is doing everything he can to throw you off and your job – your very livelihood – depends on hanging on, every little detail counts.
The Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough Series, the top flight in the sport, returns to Baltimore this weekend for the first time since 2012. The showcase, at the Royal Farms Arena downtown, is the opener of a 37-event season featuring the top 35 riders in the world.
It’s important to note that “world” part. This isn’t simply a collection of cowboys from the West and Midwest. There are a few Canadians, as well as a number of Brazilians, many of whom rank among the best in the sport. In fact, Silvano Alves is the defending champion and winner of three of the past four titles, in 2011, 2012 and 2014.
The only man who has broken up that streak is American J.B. Mauney (pronounced MOO-ney), one of the crowd favorites. He won the event here in Baltimore in 2012, and was the overall PBR champion in 2013.
The world of bull riding hasn’t exactly found sabermetrics yet. Riders don’t even find out which bull they are riding until the week of the event, a few days in advance. Some like to watch video of other riders on the same bull to prepare. Others ask around for tips, which are willingly dished out.
“We share information,” says Mauney. “We’re all buddies, we all help each other.”
The community of riders is more like skiers than team sports – they’re competing against each other, sure, but the mountain is the real challenge.
In this case, the mountain is more than a ton of living, bucking muscle. Each rider gets a different bull, chosen at random in advance from a stable of more than 80 animals.
Prior to the event, they wait quietly, patiently, their calm belying the fury to follow. Some even stand two to a pen, without even as much as a rustle. Less than 30 feet away, behind a black stage curtain, the riders prepare, testing ropes, suiting up, drinking Gatorade and snapping off bites of beef jerky.
Mauney’s combination of sponsorships gives you a pretty decent feel for where the sport resides in Americana and possibly where it hopes to expand. In addition to Wrangler, Lucchese Boots and Resistol Hats, Mauney is also sponsored by Kawasaki, Monster Energy Drinks and Tyson Foods. The first three are obvious fits, but the Japanese heavy equipment manufacturer comes in with the marketing of their UTV, The Mule, which gets a spin out on the dirt between sections of riders. The driver even showcases its expandability to fit six people, picking up the Monster promotional girls and riding away with them out of the arena.
It’s all part of the show, the same as you’d expect between innings, or quarters, or periods. The money has slowly built up, too, with a $140,000 overall purse and $30,000 going to the winner of this weekend’s event.
Once it’s time for the riders to get strapped in and go, it doesn’t take long for the first reminder of just how dangerous the sport can be. Australian Ben Jones, just the fifth rider of the night, comes out of the gates atop a bull appropriately named Wreck It Ralph. The animal bucks his rider within just a couple of seconds, depositing him into the dirt, then laying waste to his face and ribs with a violent stomp of his back legs. Stunned for a moment, Jones tried to sit up, but moved slowly toward the fence, finally escaping the arena. When he returns a half hour later, his injuries were readily apparent, skin frayed on the side of his bloody face.
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“Yeah, he got me pretty good,” he laughs. “Do better tomorrow,”
As a top-five rated rider, Mauney is one of the last of the night to ride. He does without the injury, but doesn’t fare much better than Jones, lasting just a few seconds before being rolled off the side of his bull, Ranga, and dumped to the dirt. It’s the downside of such a singular moment defining your entire day. Bull riding has the highest preparation-to-participation ratio of anything this side of sumo wrestling.
The riders each get a score, based on a combination of their performance and the strength of the bull’s efforts to thwart them. It’s essentially a balance between skill displayed and degree of difficulty. Of course, if they don’t make it eight seconds, that score is a zero. However, a rider’s Friday score is averaged with his score Saturday, with the top 15 advancing to the finals Saturday night.
And that means that every rider is still alive, with a shot to make the finals. So whether you’ve got a favorite rider, or have never seen a bull riding event before, you can show up Saturday, pop open a program, and follow everyone along.
Tickets for the PBR Baltimore Invitational range from $15-$100 and can be purchased online through Ticketmaster, or at the Royal Farms Arena box office. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the first rides begin at 7 p.m.
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