Love of rodeo keeps cowboy going

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No one has a greater love for his profession than a rodeo cowboy and that is just what Hobbema, Alberta Native Larry Bull is - a cowboy in love with the thrill of the rodeo.

In fact, he loves the rodeo circuit so much that he spends the better part of the year travelling throughout four provinces competing in calf roping and steer wrestling events.

Bull is a Cree and a member of the Louis Bull Band. He lives with his wife and four children on a horse ranch in Hobbema, Alberta, when he is not travelling the rodeo circuit. He started this year's rodeo season in March and has since participated in some 30 rodeos. The most recent one was the Budweiser Pro Rodeo Series held in Brandon, Man. June 16-20.

This year is the second time he's competed in the Budweiser Pro Rodeo Series in Brandon and he plans to be back this summer for the Morris Stampede in Morris, Manitoba for his fourth consecutive year. He also hopes to be able to attend the rodeo in Swan River this season.

Bull has been running the circuit in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba for about 15 years now. He drives himself across the country with his two horses, Cowboy and Cactus, attending numerous rodeo events from March through to September of each year.

The Hobbema cowboy was the calf-and team-roping champion and the All-Round Champion cowboy at the 1993 Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council's Winter Tribal Days held in Brandon this past January. And although he didn't have a very successful run at the Brandon rodeo event, he says that he will do better. His best time in the calf roping event is a short 7.9 seconds.

In calf roping and steer wrestling competitions, like most rodeo events, sometimes the object of the ride is to just stay alive.

Calf roping demands split-second timing against the clock to match and tie a calf. The calf must cross the scoreline before the rider breaks the chute barrier or a penalty of 10 seconds is added to the roper's score. Once the calf is roped, the cowboy runs down the rope and throws the animal by hand. The calf must be standing before the cowboy may throw it down, so there is always the possibility that more time may be lost if the calf is already down. Then the Piggin' String comes into play. Any three legs of the calf must be tied and held for six seconds or the roper is disqualified.

The calf roping horses must know their job as well as the cowboy as they have an important role to play in the competition. The interaction between the two is crucial as the horse must be able to judge the speed of the calf and be able to stop on cue in a single stride. Then the horse must hold the rope taunt when the roper runs to the calf.

Training a horse to do all this and do it well is a difficult task. But Bull's horse knows just what to do and when to do it. Cowboy is as much of a professional as Bull himself. During his competition at the Budweiser Pro Rodeo in Brandon recently, his calf-roping horse Cowboy did everything just right.

Bull got his calf roped right out of the chute without penalty. However, when he leapt off Cowboy, he twisted his ankle and that minor injury slowed him down, taking valuable seconds in the process. The time he had to beat was 8.9 seconds, and with the injury, he didn't get anywhere near his best time of 7.9 seconds. Instead, he scored an 11.6 seconds, ending a disappointing day.

In steer wrestling, co-ordination, strength and timing are all important as the steer is given a head start. Again in this event, the rider receives a 10 second penalty added to his time if he breaks the barrier of the starting box. The steer must cross the scoreline before the rider breaks the barrier.

The horse must be trained to run alongside the steer and run on by as the cowboy reaches for his steer. The steer must be flat on its side before official time is taken, so with a firm grip on the steer's right horn, the cowboy brings the steer to a dead stop and then uses his left hand as a leverage uner the steer's jaw, throwing it off balance. The cowboy then wrestles it to the ground. In this event, a second horse and rider is used for the job of keeping the steer running as straight as possible.

When Bull and his horse Cactus made their steer wrestling attempt, the steer bolted out of the chute and unfortunately got away. This left the former champion with

a no score, providing that every second counts and that rider and horse must be totally synchronized to secure a good finishing score. It takes a lot of work, training and practice to wrestle a steer rodeo style and as Bull well knows, it doesn't always go the way you hope it will.

But like any good cowboy, he picks himself up, dusts himself off and keeps right on going to the next rodeo on the circuit in hopes of doing better and better.

Bull is a very busy cowboy. He participated in 75 separate rodeos last year and believes that if all goes well, he'll match that number again this year. From Brandon, he was heading directly for Innisfail, Alberta for another rodeo.

Bull is a member of the Indian Rodeo Cowboy Association, the Saskatchewan Prairie Indian Rodeo, the Northern Alberta Native Cowboys Association and the Indian Pro Rodeo Association.

The Brandon rodeo is ranked as the largest in the province and is the 12th largest in the country. This year's event had 300 contestants taking part. Of these 300 cowboys, 15 were former or current World Champions and 70 have National Finals experience. Prize money depends on the number of entries to some extent and this year, there were at least the same number of entries as last year with more than $72,000 in prize money up for grabs.

The Budweiser Pro Rodeo is an important stop on the rodeo circuit for those involved as it is the fourth leg of the five-rodeo Budweiser Pro Series. That's a circuit where the top-five finishers in each of the five major events advance to the Calgary Stampede. The annual Cowtown extravaganza, rodeo's richest payday, goes thisyear from July 8-19 in Calgary.