September 22, 2016 
Picture this: human and animal moving in unison, coming together for a brief connection. Those who witness are left holding their breath in complete wonderment of what the rider must possess in order to engage in such a feat.
Of course, most might answer pure madness.
Because we are talking about riding bulls, not horses.
Partner or adversary?
The art of horsemanship has drawn analogies to dance, where partners in performance form a synchronous movement toward a goal. Elegance, mastery, a beautiful melding of human and animal.
But how does the bull rider view the bull?
Former world champion Cody Snyder says, “I liked the bulls. Looked at them as a partner. It was me against them but without them you could not be a bull rider so they were your partner.”
In this strange dance of rider and animal, it seems you have to hold loosely to a contradiction. Yes, the bull is your athletic match, your opponent. But in order to succeed a rider must follow their lead. They set the dance steps, not you. The rider’s job is to follow enough to make that dance last the full eight seconds.
Though there may be no bond to speak of here as there are with horses, there certainly is healthy respect, a firm nod to the beast that ultimately is in charge of the direction of the game.
As Manitoba bullrider Landon Lockhart says, “You have to be relaxed. That bull will do what he wants, you got to go with him.”
Preparing for battle
So how exactly does a bull rider prepare for 1,500 pounds or more of snorting vengeful beast?
Every top-level athlete has a pre-competition plan to match his or her particular needs. The task for the bull rider is a complex one. Consider the fortitude necessary to face the risk coupled with the relaxed feel necessary to follow the animal’s movements. Not unlike horse sport, the bull rider has to align with the energy of the bull, not fight it. To ride with a body too tense is to ensure early ejection.
PBR Canada National Champion Scott Schiffner from Strathmore says riders have their own and collective ways of staying relaxed.
“When it’s half an hour out there is lots of joking and camaraderie going on. What we do is a very serious and dangerous sport, you can’t dwell on it. So we are all very lighthearted. I try to stay there just as long as I can. The more calm and cool I am the better I have always done.”
Other riders, like Snyder, utilize the power of visualization to set up the perfect ride.
“I would go off by myself and get a mental picture of myself riding the bull through the entire eight second ride as well as seeing myself getting off and getting away safely. I would play it through my mind over and over again. Tell myself to be positive, try hard and don’t quit.”
A game of losing
All sport involves losing. We know this. It is an inevitable outcome that you will experience and have to process. And yet, some of us are still unpleasantly surprised by it and want to seek all manners of avoiding it.
In bullriding, there is a whole lot of losing happening.
Says Schiffner, “The hardest thing about this game is the best guys in the world still get bucked off 30 percent of the time. And that’s a best guess. For most, it’s half the time. So dealing with losing is the biggest thing that makes bullriders a different breed. The guys that can deal with losing will be your biggest winners. I was taught at a young age and try to teach the younger guys you need to learn how to lose before you can learn how to win. Especially in this game.”
Riders can easily get lost in a mire of self-loathing and negativity after an unsuccessful ride. It’s thick emotional mud to try and free yourself from—for many, this is the second loss. They cannot shake the event and end up weighing down their next ride instead of embracing new opportunity.
To be a good loser and winner is to be a learner of experience. A student of yourself and your sport.
Schiffner takes a hard line with himself after getting bucked off, but also a very purposeful one:
“You can’t dwell on it, but you also have to beat yourself up. If that makes any sense.”
Is what he does is a kind of “angry reboot”?
“Yes, it is like that. So if I get bucked off like last night, I come back here [to the holding area] and I had a 10-minute window [before the next ride] and I was mad as anybody you would ever see. I am mad at myself, know you can do better, figure out what you can do better. But then you have to turn it off and walk away.”
Eight second lessons or less.
Certainly a smaller amount of time than it takes to compete a hunter round or dressage test, and infinitely more risky. But in the end, the success of the bullrider, as is true of other athletes, is more dependent on quality and quantity of time spent mentally and physically training. Then those precious seconds that mean success will take care of themselves.
About the Author
April Clay is a rider and sports psychologist in Calgary, Alberta. Want to learn more about show preparation and mental toughness? Check out the Resilient Rider Online Course and the Confidence Factor at www.outofyourmindcourses.com.
