Springdale rodeo seeks best stock for cowboys

NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Bulls are delivered Wednesday to Parsons Stadium in Springdale for the Rodeo of the Ozarks.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/FLIP PUTTHOFF Bulls are delivered Wednesday to Parsons Stadium in Springdale for the Rodeo of the Ozarks.

Rodeo cowboys say Scott Burruss supplies some of the best bulls in rodeo. Burruss credits God with providing them to him.

"I guess God sends them to us," he said simply, when asked how he finds top bulls. "We're just poor farm folks trying to make a living."

Rodeo of the Ozarks

When: Tonight through Saturday. Gates open at 6 p.m.

Where: Parsons Stadium, 1423 E. Emma Ave.

Rodeo tidbits: A second rodeo parade will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, starting at the rodeo ground and traveling west up Emma Avenue. The rodeo hosts more than 400 cowboys and cowgirls and a wide variety of classic competitions, including bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, women’s barrel racing and bull riding. This year’s rodeo features Sweethearts of the Rodeo, cowgirl trick riders, and the Marine Corps Mounted Color Guard. The final night of the rodeo be followed by a 20-minute fireworks show.

Information: (877) 927-6336, http://rodeooftheoz…">rodeooftheozarks.org

Burruss loaded 15 of his bulls onto a cattle truck Monday afternoon and sent them from his ranch south of Newport to Springdale to buck at the Rodeo of the Ozarks. The best of those 15 will be reserved for Saturday's performance, he said.

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"Scott Burruss is one of the top bull men in the business," said Jeff Lee, the Rodeo of the Ozarks' announcer. "He sees hundreds of bulls each year -- literally hundreds of animals. Scott Burruss has a great eye for livestock."

Rodeo participants have chosen Burruss' pen of 15 for either the National Finals Rodeo of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association held each December or the World Finals of the Professional Bull Riders each November, both held in Las Vegas.

"A really, really good bull, in my opinion, comes out and does his job -- which is to buck, getting points for the cowboy," said John Gladden, a longtime member of the Rodeo of the Ozarks board. "He comes out and dumps the cowboy over his head, or takes a big jump to the left and then turns back right. The bell rings or the whistle blows, and he stops bucking and walks out of the ring.

"It's the cowboy's job to ride them."

Earning Points

A bull ride is worth a possible 100 points -- up to 50 points can be awarded by the judges for the way a cowboy rides the bull. The bull can earn another 50 points for the cowboy by the way it performs.

"They are competing against the animal, not other cowboys," Gladden said of the bull riders.

Stace Smith of Athens, Texas, is the Rodeo of the Ozarks' stock contractor and an 11-time Cowboy Association Stock Contractor of the Year.

"Cowboys like to get on rank, hard-to-ride bulls, and not get thrown off," Smith said.

Wyatt Rogers of Coweta, Okla., said a good bull gives him a chance to win a lot of points.

"A bull with a lot of kick, a lot of spin action," he said.

Rogers was slated to ride in Springdale on Wednesday night on one of Burruss' bulls. Lee recently mentioned Rogers as an up-and-coming bull rider. He has qualified for the Championship Bull Riding finals several years and recently finished well at the professional association's Atoka (Okla.) Trail Riders "Xtreme Bulls" event.

"A good bull has a heart," Lee said. "People don't understand how much a bull is a real athlete. Each has its own attitude and persona. People don't know a bull can be left-handed or right-handed," preferring to spin left or right as they buck, he explained.

"That's why the Rodeo of the Ozarks has chutes on two sides," Lee said.

Bulls are loaded from the center of the chutes, setting each to jump out on his preferred side, he explained.

"To get on a truck and travel 5,000 to 6,000 miles a year, to be hauled that far and still buck," Lee continued. "A lot of bulls, seems like once they are ridden, it breaks their heart, and they won't buck again.

"The best animal athletes have the heart to take the rodeo atmosphere, the cowboy riding him and the travel."

Home Grown

The Rodeo of the Ozarks, consistently chosen as one of the top five outdoor rodeos by association members, tries to get the best bulls to attract the best cowboys, Gladden said, thus providing Northwest Arkansas rodeo fans with a good show.

"The cowboys show up for good bulls," Gladden said. "They could win part of $10,000 for 8 seconds."

Gladden explained many rodeos are held in the western part of the United States this time of year, making the Rodeo of the Ozarks off the beaten path.

If a cowboy is matched with a "dinky" bull in the drawing a few weeks before the competition, he probably won't make the trip to Springdale, Gladden said.

"But if the bull's worth a dime, they come. They want a tough son of a buck that will buck," he said.

Rogers is pleased to be riding one of Burruss' bulls.

"I've been on him before, and I think I have a good chance to win," he said.

Smith compared his job to that of a general contractor. The local rodeo board hired him, and he, in turn, hires the men who work in the ring, clowns and animals.

Burruss is a partner in the Smith Harper Morgan rodeo company. In addition to his bulls, bulls from the Andrews Rodeo Co. in Addielou, Texas; the Rafter G. Rodeo Co., owned by the Gay family of Terrell, Texas; and Smith Pro Rodeo will perform in Springdale.

"Y'all have the best bulls in Arkansas," Smith said. "Scott Burruss has the best bulls, and he's a partner in our rodeo company. He handles 90 percent of our bulls."

Burruss and Dillon Page of the D&H Rodeo Co. provided more bulls to the 2016 National Finals Rodeo than anybody else -- both took seven, Lee said. Bulls and horses are chosen by contestants to compete at the finals, based on the animals' performances throughout the rodeo year.

Origins

Top bucking stock comes from a variety of places.

Breeding programs increasingly develop bulls that like to buck, and a feeder system for bucking bulls has developed, Smith said. Smaller rodeo competitions called "futurities" showcase young bucking bulls.

"When they get too old, we get the chance to buy them," he said.

And sometimes bulls are pulled out of a pasture. Smith told of a set of bulls on a feed lot that had been bucked once. Of the four bulls, one went on to become "Hurricane," chosen to buck at both the association and Professional Bull Riders championships.

A bull called "Hillbilly" came to Burruss by way of Jimmy Morris in Huntsville, he said. Hillbilly will buck at the Rodeo of the Ozarks. Burruss listed more of his bulls that will buck in Springdale, with some never ridden: Revolution, Hot and Heavy, Texas Twister, Hacksaw Ridge, Land Shark and Pistol.

Burruss owns about 60 bulls that are mature buckers, and another 75 or so that are 1-, 2- and 3-year-olds not yet ready to buck, he said.

"You can train a bull to buck to the extent you can train a coon or rabbit dog," Burruss said. "But it's bred in them, although maybe you can tweak it a bit, tweak a few things."

Top rodeo bulls can fetch prices of $50,000 to $70,000, Smith said. But that doesn't necessarily mean one bucks better than a $3,500 bull.

"You just want the best pen of bulls," he explained.

Burruss said people also send him videos.

"But we'd hate to skin up and buy them for $20,000 or $30,000, and they don't buck. It's best to go with that gut feeling," he said.

And, "you'd better have God on your side."

NW News on 06/22/2017

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