Speaking of bullriders...
My wife has kinfolk down at Larto Lake. Larto used to really be on the tail-end of nowhere. Fishing is usually pretty good though. Sometimes my friend, the wife and I, would take his big boat and run down there. Do some fishing and visit relatives...Kind of a twofer.
Oftentimes, you'd be trying to fish, working around structure on the end of the lake and you'd hear a bunch of young lads whooping and hollering with a cowbell just a clangin'. Sometimes it was hard to see what was going on, with several old worn out trucks scattered around Bud's house.
But we knew. Bud's boy was practicing bullriding. You can make a practice bull out of an old oil drum. You drive four posts in the ground, tie ropes to the drum and posts, snubbing the ropes pretty tight with just a hair of slack. You put your rigging on the barrel and guys will pull and jerk on the ropes to simulate the movement of a bull. You can mimic most things, except for a spin.
Anyway, that bunch of young cowboys probably wore the ropes out on that old barrel. Probably terrorized half the yearlings in the community while they were at it. Bud's boy never did become a really good bullrider. Kid took a growth spurt and grew as tall as his 6'2" dad. Too tall for bulls. One of the lads tended to be better on the barrel than the rest of them...Little guy, wasn't much bigger than a minute. Guess he had a lower center of gravity. Or just more determination and grit. Anyway, he rode a lot locally and then hit the rodeo circuit. Kid did ok.
You might have heard of him, back in the day...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Shivers
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