bucking bull

{{short description|Animal used for rodeo competition}}

{{Use American English|date=May 2020}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2020}}

File:Bull-Riding-Szmurlo.jpg

File:Mildred Douglas Riding Wild Steer (4667162072).jpg

A bucking bull is a bull used in rodeo bull riding competition. They are usually a Brahman crossed with another breed, weighing 1,500 pounds or more, selected for their tendency to "leap, plunge and spin" when a human is on its back.{{sfn|Curnutt|2001|p=268}} In the mid-20th century, breeders began selecting bulls for bad temperament; ones that would buck when ridden.{{sfn|Nance|2013|p=181}}

Many of the best bucking bulls trace their lineage to bulls owned by Charlie Plummer of Oklahoma. These are known as Plummer bulls.{{sfn|Groves|2006|p=14}}

Bucking bulls are viewed as athletes. They usually are started in their bucking career at the age of two or three, reach their athletic prime at age five or six, and if they remain healthy, can continue bucking at least until the age of 10, sometimes longer."2016 PBR Media Guide", "Bulls", pp .199-212.

In some competitions between bulls, with a purse amounting to tens of thousands of dollars per event, the bulls are ridden by electronic dummies, not rodeo bull riders.{{citation |author=Kevin Kerr |title=The gold standard |date=April 25, 2011 |url=http://www.duncanbanner.com/news/the-gold-standard/article_3d44b937-7006-5f42-80bb-a371e562cbe7.html |newspaper=Duncan Banner}} Good performing bulls attain a celebrity status and can be considered a star athlete in their own right, and a valiant competitor on the field against the human rider.{{sfn|Lawrence|1984|p=197}}{{sfn|Nance|2013|pp=174-177, "Animal celebrity defined"}}

The first sale of breeding cows out of champion bucking bulls was in 1999.{{cite web |author1=Lynn Montgomery |date=April 15, 2004 |title=Bucking bull breeders bring their best to competition |url=http://www.countryworldnews.com/news-archives/CTX/2004/ct0415buckingbulls.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220215741/http://www.countryworldnews.com/news-archives/CTX/2004/ct0415buckingbulls.php |archive-date=December 20, 2016 |website=Country World Archives 2001-2008 |publisher=Country World}}

From a veterinary medicine perspective, bucking bulls see diagnoses that are different from regular cattle.{{Cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Joe S. |last2=Angelos |first2=John A. |last3=Chigerwe |first3=Munashe |date=2017-06-01 |title=Disorders of performance-age bucking bulls |url=https://avmajournals.avma.org/view/journals/javma/250/11/javma.250.11.1302.xml |journal=Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association |volume=250 |issue=11 |pages=1302–1307 |doi=10.2460/javma.250.11.1302 |pmid=28509635 |issn=0003-1488|url-access=subscription }} This may be due to their role being similar to an athlete.

The percent of top professional riders staying on the bull for a full eight second "out" had dropped from 75% in the early 1990s to 35% circa 2014. This has led to criticism that the breeding has resulted in excessively aggressive and dangerous animals.{{citation |author=Andrea Appleton |title=Too Much Bull: An Industry Obsessed with Breeding Bigger, Nastier Bulls Is Putting Children In Harm's Way. One Champion Rider is Fighting to Change That. |date=July 8, 2014 |url=https://www.sbnation.com/longform/2014/7/8/5877463/too-much-bull-an-industry-obsessed-with-breeding-bigger-nastier-bulls |work=SB Nation |publisher=Vox Media}}

Some notable bucking bulls include Bodacious, Bruiser, Bushwacker, Chicken on a Chain, Dillinger, Little Yellow Jacket and Pacific Bell. A bull named Panhandle Slim had four clones, with identical bucking patterns, who like their sire, competed in the Professional Bull Riders circuit.{{citation|author=Lisa M. Krieger |title=Rodeo bulls better bred through science to buck riders |date=July 16, 2013 |url=http://www.mercurynews.com/2013/07/16/rodeo-bulls-better-bred-through-science-to-buck-riders/|newspaper=San Jose Mercury News}}{{citation |author=Dylan Brown |title='Long dead' bull lives on in clones: Practice grows on rodeo circuit |date=June 30, 2013 |url=http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/jun/30/long-dead-bull-lives-on-in-clones/ |newspaper=Lewiston Tribune |via=Spokane Spokesman-Review}}