Home / General / Making an Incredibly Dangerous Sport Even More Dangerous

Making an Incredibly Dangerous Sport Even More Dangerous

/
/
/
1623 Views

You thought I was going to talk about football, but nope, talkin’ rodeo here! And breeders are trying to make bulls even more dangerous than before.

Over the past two decades, breeders have relied on the registry maintained by American Bucking Bull Inc. to help them identify champion bulls. Because breeders use anywhere from seven to 10 sires with one dam to increase their chance of birthing a champion, they need the registry to tell them whether their bull calf shares DNA with the best buckers.

“Think of it like Maury Povich,” explained Marlissa Gonzalez, the director of the registry. “We’re telling breeders who the father is.”

While Gonzalez and her team can’t isolate specific genes for bucking, kicking and leaping, they can use their database of nearly 400,000 bulls to trace an animal’s lineage back six generations. Because of that data, champion bulls are now scattered across the country like the myriad descendants of Genghis Khan.

“When I started, about 15 years ago, we could only do two generations,” Gonzalez said. “Now, the chances of getting a good bucker are so much higher. The bloodline gives you all the right parts and pieces, from the strengths that come with good legs to the muscular build that helps them buck.”

The improvement in bulls presents a challenge to riders, who are produced the old-fashioned way.

“I’ve been saying for 20 years: They better start breeding cowboys,” said Roddy Coquat, a rider turned judge.

Riders grow up hearing about the death of Lane Frost, whose broken ribs pierced his heart and lungs at an event in Wyoming in 1989. After that, P.B.R., the professional bull riding circuit, mandated the use of protective vests. Many riders now wear helmets, too, though they are not required for anyone born before Oct. 15, 1994. Still, deaths persist. Most recently, Amadeu Campos Silva, a 22-year-old Brazilian rider, died after being stomped by a bull at a 2021 P.B.R. event in Fresno, Calif.

This is a very bad idea. Bullriders are the craziest motherfuckers in the world anyway. They do not need help in killing themselves by riding even more intense bulls. This is like the NFL re-legalizing helmet to helmet collisions or NASCAR taking the restrictor plates off the cars. This is not only wrong, but it should be illegal. Sometimes, athletes need to be protected from themselves. I don’t know if bull riders are athletes exactly (not to mention NASCAR drivers) but the point remains.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin
This div height required for enabling the sticky sidebar
Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views : Ad Clicks : Ad Views :