Just like people? That’s bull

By David Zizzo

Published: August 2, 2006

They’re just like people - huge, muscular ones that can grind you into chalk dust.

“They’ve got all kinds of personalities,” Rory Lemmel said. “There’s gentle ones. There’s mean ones.”

Watch out for the mean ones. Problem is, you can’t really tell anything about bulls, even if you “look ’em in the eye.” Just ask anyone who spent their summer vacation getting gored in Pamplona.

One thing’s for sure about the animals that will be under cowboys for a few seconds at the Bullnanza at the Ford Center this weekend: They’ll have some major attitude.

Like the guys riding them, these animals are good at what they do, said Lemmel, chute boss for Stace Smith Pro Rodeos.

Still, even some of the rankest bulls can be laid-back in their off-time, Lemmel said. “There’ll be a bull you can walk up to and scratch. He’ll come over if he sees you by the fence,” he said. “Then when he bucks, he really bucks.”

Bucking the trend

You can make some guesses about bulls, though, said Harlan Robertson, a stock contractor from Gilmer, Texas, who’s providing some of the bulls for Bullnanza. You can check their genetic makeup, their bloodline. And you can look them over.

“You want them to be put together right,” meaning good, clean, tight muscle definition, maybe real “high in the hips,” Robertson said. And you don’t want them too “sheathy.” Don’t ask.

Still, none of this is proof a bull will be lively in the dirt, Robertson said. “It don’t matter. They can be out of the greatest cow and the greatest bull on Earth, and they may still not buck.”

You can tell that only when you climb on. That’s also when you’ll find out if a bull is left-handed (hoofed?) or right-handed, meaning its preferred “delivery” direction out of a chute.

Bucking is natural for some, especially those bred for it, Robertson said. Either a bull’s got the urge or he doesn’t. You can’t make a calm bull buck, and you can’t tame a rank bull, he said. Like people, it depends on the individual.

“Some people are short-fused. You could slap them in the face with dirty underwear every day for 10 days in a row, they’ll never say a word,” he said. “And some are easily agitated.”

The best bucking bulls, Robertson said, “know what they’re doing” when they break from the gate.

“They learn a pattern. They know what’s expected of them,” he said. “They do it on a day-to-day basis. They’re like a good horse, they’re spirited.

“The great ones, I think they enjoy it.”

A pretty good life

And why not, Lemmel said. If you’re a bull, rodeoing is a pretty good life. Twenty to 25 times a year, you go to work for 8 seconds, or less, Lemmel said.

For that you get fed three times a day and there’s always plenty of water to drink. Bucking bulls get pampered, Lemmel said. While most normal bulls soon wind up at the packing plant, bucking champs, which can cost up to $100,000, can have rodeo careers of up to eight years, then usually are put out to pasture to breed.

“They’re worth a lot of money, so you want to keep as good care of them as possible,” he said.

Robertson’s favorites include Texas, Mean Machine, Biloxi Blues and Tombstone, four of his bulls rated in the top 20 of all active professional bucking bulls. Like a one-ton puppy, bulls can find your soft spot, he said.

“If you’ve got a great bucking horse, you get attached to him. If you’ve got a great dog, you get attached to him,” Robertson said. “Same thing with a bull.”