rodeo round up
BUCKLE UP & HOLD FAST—IT’S THE GREATEST SHOW ON DIRT
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PHOTOS BY ANDY WATSON / PBR |
McBride Rides High
by Kendra Santos
“You can’t put a price on this sport.”
–Justin McBride
HE’S SAID YOU HAVE TO WANT IT.
MCBRIDE DID, AND HE GOT IT.
Justin McBride gets it. Thanks to the old-time cowboy
blood that pumps through that huge heart of his, and
close friends (like ProRodeo Hall of Famer Ty Murray)
who serve as real-deal reminders of his sport’s roots, the
2007 Professional Bull Riders World Champion knows
how great he’s got it. If you do the historical homework
and look all the way back to day one on the wide-open
range, there has never been a better time to be the best
bull rider—bar none—and McBride knows it.
He tore down the $1,479,231 annual earnings record he set
during his first PBR title run in 2005 with $1,860,321 in 2007
alone. And he did it in dominating style, winning a milestone
eight Built Ford Tough Series events. McBride and Brazilian
reservist Guilherme Marchi, who’s finished a close second three
years running, also cowrote a new record for most successful
rides in a single season in 2007 with 57 apiece. McBride’s closing
in on $5 million in career earnings, which makes him the richest
cowboy ever to stick his hand in a bull rope.
“I thank the guys who started all this (PBR’s cowboy
founders, including Murray) from the bottom of my heart and
the bottom of my wallet,” beamed McBride, who’s paid for his
3,200-acre Oklahoma ranch in rapid-fire fashion thanks to the
rich riding opportunities offered by the PBR.
Don’t get him wrong. McBride doesn’t
ride bulls for the money. You can’t do
that. It doesn’t work. But if the challenge
of the best bucking bulls on the planet is
your passion, the PBR is tough to beat.
“If you don’t truly love it, there’s no
amount of money that justifies doing
this,” he explained. “You can’t put a
price on this sport.”
But he can place a value on spending
his days hunting white-tailed deer with a
bow and fishing for black bass and catfish
on the banks of his very own river.
It’s the perfect place for he and wife, Jill,
to raise their little girl, Addisen. Their
word for that: “priceless.”
Adrenaline junkies all, every great in
the history of this game has said it at one
time or another in his career: “I’d do this
for nothing.” When the stakes are this
high—literally life or death—you have
to love it that much to have a prayer.
At press time, McBride was scheduled
to undergo shoulder surgery to reattach
a ligament to the bone on his free arm
(left) shoulder in Dallas in December
and expected to miss at least the first six
to eight months of the 2008 season.
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Guilherme Marchi finishes second for the 2007 PBR Built Ford Tough Series. |
Some, including McBride, say the time is
right for Marchi to go all the way.
“I can’t find a negative thing to say
about Guilherme,” McBride said. “He’s a
good guy, and he’s the epitome of this
sport. He’s still really
young [25], so he has a
lot of time. He knows
he can do it. I look for
him to be the world
champ in 2008.”
McBride’s walked
in Marchi’s bridesmaid’s
boots, so he
really does know the
feeling of falling just
short. He described
his first championship
as more of a
“relief” than anything.
“Both titles mean so much for so
many different reasons,” McBride said.
“Before I won the first one, my entire
life had been about getting to that point.
All I ever cared about was to be a world
champion. This [second] one is so
sweet, because of the personal challenge
involved. It’s hard to find that fire again.
To go get another one, you have to personally
challenge yourself to do it. The
first one was such a load off my shoulders.
This one is so much more fun.”
Kendra Santos has been Rodeo Editor of
American Cowboy from the magazine’s
debut issue in 1994. She lives in Creston,
Calif.
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| Photo courtesy of PRCA |
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Muncy Makes His Mark
Ariat team member and saddle bronc
rider Taos Muncy marched to his first world
title at his first Wrangler National Finals
Rodeo last December in Las Vegas, bringing
his total earnings for the year to $201,133.
Muncy, 20, of Corona, N.M., was ecstatic
after winning the gold buckle. “It’s unreal. I
can’t explain it,” Muncy said of being world
champion. “I was a nervous wreck every
round. I was just trying to hide it from everybody,
and I just didn’t say anything. I don’t
know what to say. I just got really lucky and
drew good horses. I was just honored to be
here riding with all my heroes.”
Parents Blaine and Johnnie Muncy both
were rodeo competitors, Blaine in all three
roughstock events and Johnnie as a breakaway
roper and a barrel racer. Taos’ sister
Jordan won the National High School Finals
championship in barrel racing in 2006 and is
also on the Oklahoma Panhandle State
University rodeo team. The Muncy family
was featured in a coffeetable book Making a
Hand: Growing Up Cowboy in New Mexico,
from Museum of New Mexico Press.
Muncy got the first name Taos because he
was born about the time of the Taos Days
Rodeo, and his father knew a bull rider
named Taos. Although primarily a saddle
bronc rider, Muncy has also competed at the
college level in bareback riding, bull riding,
and tie-down roping, and was 2007 College
National Finals Champion.
Ariat has sponsored Muncy as part of its
support of the sport of riding at all levels. In
its brief history, Ariat has sponsored more
than 10,000 local, regional, and national
events as well as hundreds of athletes in
their pursuit of equestrian excellence. For
more information, visit www.ariat.com. |
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