Updated November 01, 2024 at 15:19 PM ET
Some sports are a lot more dangerous than others.
Bull riding has ten times the injury rate of football, according to a report by the Journal of the San Francisco Medical Society. Rodeos can also be hard on animals’ bodies.
Morning Edition host A Martínez spoke with two teenagers in Pahrump, Nevada about being rodeo cowboys.
Riders can only use one hand, and are scored on how hard and high the animal kicks and jumps.
The harder the ride, the higher the score.
“When that first jump comes out and he bucks hard, sometimes I feel like jumping off,” said Pono Vincent, 15, from Pahrump, Nevada.
“But if you wanna win something, you’ve gotta stay on for the full eight seconds.”
Vincent says he’s been riding for nearly two years.
“I’ve been stomped on my hip, my back, torn hamstrings,” he said. “It takes a lot to be a bull rider.”
A study from the Kansas Journal of Medicine finds that bull and untamed horse riding are among the most dangerous rodeo events.
Vincent knows the risks.
“I get scared every single day,” he said. “My mom gets scared every time I get on the bull and I get scared every time because I don't want to end up in a bad wreck and end up in a wheelchair.
We also met Derek Hoskins, 17, from Boulder City, Nevada.
In the moments he’s sitting on top of a bull before the gate opens, his mantra is “aggressive body, calm mind.”
“So you want to have that aggressive body, be ready to go, Hoskins said. “But in your mind, be peaches and rainbows, like, cause that's all you can do, you know, whatever happens is going to happen.”
Before going out in the arena, he says he looks the bull right in the eye.
“Beforehand, you kind of have to degrade him a little bit,” Hoskins said.
“You got to like tell him, ‘You ain't nothing. You nothing,’ Because if you go into it with that attitude, you'll be more successful.”
He says bulls will give him that same energy “And they'll show that to you too, they’ll prove it.” he said.
Hoskins rides both untamed horses and bulls — adult male cows, but they play different games.
“Both are very hard on your body,” Hoskins said. “The horses don't chase after you, after you're down,” thought sometimes the bulls come after the rider after they’re bucked off.
Copyright 2024 NPR
