Miniature bull riding

Then comes time to rodeo. Diminutive as these guys are, they become big time.  

They’re full-grown miniature bulls, not four feet high, with humps and horns. They’re bred to buck off real boys aged 8-14, and up to 120 pounds.  

Ty O’Hern and Dalton, his 15-year-old son, brought some of their 60-bull string from Rocky Mountain Mini-Buckers down from St. Ignatius recently for Drummond’s second springtime miniature bull riding clinic.  

“We’ll have some that jump and kick, and we’ll have some that turn back — just like the big ones,” O’Hern said. “We have some that hook you, and some that are just gentle.”  

There’s 8-year-old Festus and a white-and-black Margarita Mix, whom O’Hern’s daughter and helper, Haley, claims.  

Mango Man, speckled red and hornless with a disarming expression, gave a finals-high 83-point ride to Keyshawn Whitehorse of Colorado last November, and Whitehorse claimed the championship of the fourth annual Northwest Miniature Bull Riding Finals in Helena.  

“It’s an actual bull, believe me. Just a little closer to the ground,” said Leroy Cooper of Helena. 

Cooper rides the big ones and, with wife Cassie, produces those Northwest Finals that this year will include the top seven riders from five state circuits and another from Alberta, Canada.  

For years would-be bullriders, some starting at age 3, have climbed the ladder from riding sheep and calves for ribbons and hats to jumping on bigger, badder steers. Youth and amateur rodeo associations are happy to nurture the farm system — kids riding bucking, bounding animals are big attractions.  

“Hopefully the miniature bulls will take over the steer riding, just for the simple fact that steers aren’t built anywhere close to a bull,” Cooper said. “They don’t have the power, most of them don’t kick as hard, and they don’t come up in the front end. They just trot across the arena.”  

Dalton O’Hern was 10 when miniature bulls caught his eye.  

“Him and my sister were surfing the Internet and they found them,” said Ty O’Hern, who’s been in the rodeo business pretty much all of his 38 years.  

“We were looking at big bulls and we saw these pictures,” said Dalton, who’s ridden a few steers but aspires to be a rodeo contractor and pickup man at bucking events.  

The O’Herns studied up on miniature bulls and “decided we’d better get some,” Ty said.  

“There were some in eastern Montana, a guy owned 12 bulls there and he was wanting to sell out. So we bought those 12 and just went from there.”  

Now Rocky Mountain Mini-Buckers puts on contests at the every-other-week winter rodeo series at Majestic Valley Arena north of Kalispell.  

Cooper and two other accomplished bull riders, Rick Wock of Helena and Ryan Parsons of Boulder, shared trade secrets at the second annual miniature bull riding school earlier this month.  

A dozen young riders attended the Drummond school. Most of them were in their early teens, with numerous miniature bull rides already under their belts. All towered over the one 8-year-old, Kody Gunderson of Belgrade, a miniature cowboy for the miniature bulls.  

They listened intently on the first morning as Cooper, Wock and Parsons showered them with tips on their riding gear, on how to stretch appropriate muscles, and on the sportsmanship and esprit de corps that are expected of any bull rider.  

Even when the session moved outside of Rod Conat’s indoor arena across the tracks from town and the youngsters took turns climbing aboard bucking barrels to have their bull-back carriage critiqued, there was an air of attentive nonchalance.  

Finally, shortly before noon, the O’Herns began loading the little bulls at the far end of the arena. The noise level ratcheted up. Riding time was nigh.  

Like most of us, Kody Gunderson had never climbed down in a chute and drawn his rope around the midsection of a genuine bucking bull.  

Even this miniature bull had him beat in height by several inches, but Gunderson eased down on the broad back with no apparent trepidation.  

Indeed, Gunderson was no newcomer to this game. A third-grader at Ridgeview School in Belgrade, his sheep-riding days began in preschool. Mutton busting is a cult unto itself, with events staged everywhere from sagebrush ranch rodeos to the PRCA Dodge National Circuit Finals.  

Kody won the prestigious first-place trophy at the latter last year in Pocatello, Idaho, as a 7-year-old, and it was something to see — almost as high as he was, Mark Gunderson said.  

His son won more than $4,000 sheep riding in 2010. His riding vest is plastered with logos of most of the 40 sponsors he beat the streets to secure.  

“I could go on and on,” said dad, a former bullrider who now judges high school and National Rodeo Association events.  

Kody was the Ravalli County Youth Rodeo all-around champion, one of three Montana youth rodeo circuits he rode sheep on. The gas that Mark and Bobbie Jo Gunderson burn to haul Kody to rodeos is largely covered by his sponsors. He won the sheep-riding at a Professional Bull Riding event at Helena last year to add to his stash of 10 buckles.  

He’s a straight-A student at Ridgeview — “otherwise he doesn’t get to do this,” said Mark Gunderson, who has Kody sharpening his skills by riding bareback horses wearing a blindfold.  

The 8-year-old’s goals are to win a high school bull- riding championship (on the big bulls), earn a rodeo scholarship to Montana State University, and go on to rodeo professionally.  

“Why?” he’s been asked more than once.  

“It’s pretty fun, and you’ve got to put a lot of heart into it,” he said. 

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Information from: Missoulian, http://www.missoulian.com