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Show ""a bell a plait, bull rope, spurs and luck...; ' W 7 r .,He.M Come out of the chute and at the Ft. Hall Caff , ho ride more difficult, Bom thg (ence and ,hen ,aunt e,K.; "He'll come out of the chute and spin left into the fence and then move out into the center of the arena." The basic equipment of a bull by RICHARD BARNUM-REECE Chronicle Staff On the Shoshone Bannock Tribes Indian Reservation at Ft. Hall, Idaho, Ida-ho, small boys are still playing sandlot football in the cool evenings even-ings on the grassy field off Mis sion and Agency Roads the Bureau Bur-eau of Indian Affairs Police Car ntinues to stalk the reserva ,o like a 17th Century hearse drawn by bad dreams; and the Tribal Probation Pro-bation and parole office is eamn even more heavily against itself babbling non-answers to non-questions like the proverbial drunk Indian In-dian who hourly squats against the newly white-washed slats of Jerrys Trading Post. But there is also something new because the Bull Riders are in town. at the Ft- Hall Ca,e h " taunt enough t0 te" hat is oblkw,;-' hls cheek where a had slashed across death mask. "F "Got yourself a Toii;f You're ahead 5.;.' The Rodeo is -which cowboys eitt,e,': the mundane routinT- , with catt and hoitJi which the cowboys hfJ essary to preserve Iher" engaged in games sending," se-nding," which, it is sai-ed sai-ed to ward oil bore- f mg cattle to market -I" trail drives of the south,"" out the necessary si ' and courage, it is 1 t self destruction. ltiSo: to see cowboys si I teeth, walking on cnl veloped in casts. E The basic five evens jr are calf-rooina. Mul The buns aibu no Bull Riders are the downnin racers of the rodeo circuit. They are the place where the broken down ex-all-pro linebackers go when the television set has been turned off. They are a special breed of people in an age when such a term is as worn out as last year's love affairs. A rodeo bull looks mildly like a D-8 Caterpillar that can do the hundred in seven seconds flat. He weighs between 1,600 and 1,700 pounds and is called - not without a certain sense of sacred awe -"Toro," by the full riders. Rodeo Bulls come in two models: Charo-lais Charo-lais or Brahma. The Charolais is a little smaller, usually white, and is not as ruthless as the Brahma. The Brahma also has looser skin which called the "Hot Shot to insure that they will be competitive in the arena. The bulls are driven into the chutes in groups of six by use of an electric shocking device Pudgy, Dynamite, Whirlwind, Beatle. The bull riders know the names. They also try to study and know the bucking characteristics of each animal. back riding, saddled and bull riding. Bull --f - last scheduled regular; ' rodeo. It guarantees:';'' attendance of the m of the remarkable sB:-boys sB:-boys in roping calves steers, and out-last-horses, the bull riders:1 "heavy" at the rodeo. For $25 you get etc- -an incensed bull and e. make $300 dollars at - " Rodeo. If you survive- and if your form is: 31 you are allowed ti 0l finals. The two jicfe!a maximum of 25 points-e ility which the rider -.'c other 25 points p" degree of difficulty "'U rider is a bell, a iz-toot nine pian, bull-rope; a set of spurs, and enough luck to get on and off a naturally onrey bull after a eight second ride. To ensure that the bull will be competitive they are driven into the chutes in groups of six through the maze which runs from the holding corrals by use of an electric shocking device called call-ed the "Hot Shot." When the bull is released a strap is pulled tight around his flank to provide added provocation. With or without the extra incentives, the bull usually wins. I had decided to make the whining whin-ing 170 mile journey to Ft. Hall in my yellow jeep because I know an immensely deranged ski patrolman from Sun Valley who had seen Steve McQueen ride the bull Sunshine Sun-shine in the Rodeo movie: "Junior Bonner." He was going to ride a bull. If he was going to ride a bull; I was going to ride a bull. We have a life-long contest going with each other called: "Mutual Terrification." He was leading 4-2 and I could not see an increase in what all ready amounted to a formidable form-idable lead. I was there early to inspect in-spect the stock. They were playfully cavorting in their pasture: running into trees, each other and then stopping to glare at me in their perfect bull nihilism which portends a small and very personal re-enactment of the bombing of Hiroshima. "I'm in trouble," the Sun Valley Patrolman said as he greeted me presents for the ' V are in the arena r breaks from the chute: iousness of his ite-lend ite-lend to cool object." was not in the areii: ' vis a vis my deraer:;: taking photographs, I" a system for grading r,w fence jumping. Tires?-,, a grown man with per: n hand can vault a S-::0 fence is incredible. The most agile mrc is the rodeo clown. r;n bulls as absolutely 2 j known. He prompts tr; the eccentrictities r r( When the rider is r clown routinely we rs Ft. Hall, Terry Ham: t Idaho was the clour (Contact i you're a bull rider asked my ski patrol friend who was preparing his bull-rope for the ride. "Surreal; as if this was a great big gag i played on myself . . . terrified and detached." When he came out of the chute it was on the new bull they had named "Pudgy," which no one knew much about. The bull first spun out to the right and then twisted snake-like to the left and then catapulted himself into a jack-knife jack-knife with his back arched to the a- sky. When the bull came down the rider's body exploded sideways but he still held onto the rope while frantically trying to work his way up the side of the bull with his spurs. He lasted that way until the eight second buzzer sounded. "Now there's a certified cowboy," cow-boy," the announcer boomed over the P.A. as my friend got up off the arena floor and started jumping jump-ing up and down and hooting a victory vic-tory yell. The mythology of bull riding parallels the reality: "I knew one ol' boy that rode bulls like he was born on 'em," a cowboy from Wyoming said. "Why, one time I saw that feller step onto one big mean critter and before he stepped off he had rolled his-self his-self a Bull Durham cigarette . . . no joke!!," he declared as we both burst out laughing. The chutes are 9-foot high, 3-feet 3-feet wide and 7-feet long. When the bull rider goes over the chute and down onto the back of the bull he has a bull-rope which he has thoroughly rosined at the six inch section where he will place his hand. The 13 foot rope is placed behind the front legs of the bull and up and around it's shoulders where it is routed through the cowboy's cow-boy's hand twice. After he has closed his fingers around the rope he hits them with his free hand doubled up in a fist in hopes that such action will solidify the rosined ros-ined grip. When he is ready he tells the man at the gate "outside!" and throws his chest out in the direction direc-tion of the arena to anticipate the movement of the bull and help maintain his stability during the ride. "Well . . . how do you feel?" I (Continued from Page 10) card which billed him as "The Worlds Only Human Clowning Ball." His right leg was wrapped in ace bandages. He said he made one hundred dollars for working the three day rodeo. "Exactly what is your job?" I asked. "Keep 'em out. trouble," he said, and then neatly pursed his lips to spit into some hay. "What's the most trouble a rider can get into?" "An eatin bull." He could tell I was puzzled. "That's a bull that turns on ya after he's throwed ya . . . my job is to get in there and pull that bull out before he snuffs somebody out." Later, in the arena, the clown tears a cartlidge in his leg while side-stepping a bull and lays writhing writh-ing like a large bug impaled to the ash white dust while the bull patrols the other side, occasionally occasional-ly testing the fence with vicious broadsides. : 'he cowboys try to study and : mow bucking patterns of each lifferent bull. |