‘Bull riding is a drug’: rodeo embraces its sports science era – in pictures

Boosted by cultural phenomena like the hit series Yellowstone and Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album and tour, rodeo and all things Western are enjoying a cultural resurgence. Attendance, broadcast and streaming viewership are at all time highs. So is the prize money, which is attracting more and more young athletes seeking a chance to make a name for themselves.

But while rodeo is booming, athlete development remains antiquated.

“The sport of rodeo is decades behind.” said Doug Champion, 36, founder of Optimal Performance Academy, a new rodeo school working to modernize athlete development in a sport whose frontier roots and culture of rugged individualism has been slow to adopt modern sports science. “It’s always been ‘rodeo cowboy,’ we are just now entering the chapter of the ‘rodeo athlete.’”

Historically, there has been very little money to support anyone outside the very top rodeo athletes, which fostered a culture that prized tradition and toughness, as opposed to exploring innovation in their sport.

Joe Ernst, head of rider development at the PBR, the world’s largest rodeo league, shows Matt Gordon how to work the chain to test pull-strength.

Colt Morrow undergoes sensorimotor testing with the VALD Performance team.

Sports biomechanist Kait Jackson and Joe Ernst, head of rider development at the PBR, watch as a rider captures his vertical jump for the VALD performance testing system.

The technology creates a benchmark simulation of each athlete, allowing them to see and address sport-specific weaknesses.

“There’s a sense of being an outlaw, renegade, individualistic,” said Cody Custer, now 60, winner of the 1992 PRCA World Championship, and a teacher at the workshop. “I’m gonna just plug up and do my own thing and win this thing, as opposed to being oriented towards the organization, team sports, etc.”

Rodeo athletes have traditionally come from ranching and farming families, which have always been medically under-served. These communities, says Champion, rarely went to the doctor and took pride in just “cowboying up” despite injuries or health issues. Young riders coming from these communities never expected, or received, much medical or performance-oriented care.

“It was just a different way of thinking, no preparation, no taking care of your body, and if you’re hurt, sick or tired it doesn’t matter because being a cowboy is about being tough,” said Champion.

Performance coach Chase Dougherty tries to destabilize Dalton Dwyer on the bucking bull, a piece of training equipment meant to simulate the movement of a real bull.

Jose Ramirez grimaces during a strength drill.

Attendees, most in their late teens and 20s, come from around the country to attend the five-day workshop. Photograph: Ilie Mitaru

Many rodeo athletes sleep live out of their cars to save money.

Rodeo athletes are largely freelancers, traveling on their own dime to competitions, hoping to place high enough to fund their next trip and entry fee. The vast majority of rodeo athletes still have day jobs.

“Bull riding is a drug. It’s the most addictive thing that I’ve ever experienced in my entire life,” said Gabe Martin, 22, from Felton, Delaware, who works servicing public and residential ponds during the week and chases bull riding circuits on the weekend. “It’s engulfed my life and, and it seems I just can’t get away from it. “

Optimal Performance Academy attracts young athletes from across the country to their week-long training camps. The workshops are a mix of theory and practice. The theory includes guidance on nutrition, attracting sponsors through social media, personal finance lessons, and goal-setting and visualization. The practice portion of the workshop includes performance testing, rodeo-specific workouts, practice on bucking machines and two days of live bull riding.

The riders take a moment for group prayer to ask for protection before the day’s riding begins.

‘I think rodeo is stuck in tradition, and I think that people fear that with change will come loss of tradition,’ said Doug Champion, above, who founded Optimal Performance Academy in 2023.

Champion partnered with a local stock contractor to bring 88 bulls that the riders will cycle through for the workshop

For their seventh-ever workshop in Decanter, Texas, Champion brought in an Australian pioneer in VALD, a type of performance testing which uses force plates, dynamometers, motion capture, and ocular and vestibular testing to measure a wide range of key metrics. The idea is to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each athlete, and then build personalized training programs off that data.

This testing is ubiquitous across most professional and college level elite sports, but this is the first time it’s been used for amateur bull riders.

Wyatt Bowman falls off the back of a bull.

Ryan Jae, Braulio Barraza and Jose Ramirez watch their fellow classmate.

Ed Huffman tries to untangle a rider’s leg from a raging bull.

Alec Richardson celebrates a successful ride.

“The biggest thing that we realized is nothing about rodeo that happens physically is normal or natural to the body. In no way shape or form through regular exercise patterns or everyday life are you going to improve your ability to perform in the arena,” said Champion.

Champion, who was a promising young rider in his own right, broke his back in 2010 falling off a bronco. His long, painful road to recovery led him to realize how much more rodeo athletes could be doing to increase their strength and technique while riding, and build resilience to bounce back after injuries.

“It was just get on as many horses as you can because if you get on more, you’ll figure it out sooner,” said Champion. “Well, I got on 300 horses and got my absolute dick slammed in the dirt every time and I didn’t learn anything.”

Alec Richardson holds his knee in pain after a hard fall.

A medical team and ambulance is on standby throughout the entire workshop.

Dalton Dwyer watches playback of his ride with a handful of coaches.

Champion’s hope is to shorten the training time for young riders trying to break into the pro circuits, giving them more healthy years to compete and earn a living. Rodeo is notoriously brutal on the body, with most riders forced into retirement from injuries in their late 20s or early 30s.

“It’s just a totally different approach than the trial by fire that has been the history of how you learn in rodeo,” said Champion.

Matt Gordon takes a moment before his next ride.