Some of our neighbors have a bullriding school… You can read about much of their doings at ‘RodeoUp.com’
Gary Leffew is a World Champion Bullrider and his bull riding school is on his ranch. He’s a pretty interesting fellow…. you’d expect ‘hard-bitten’ Western Cynicism from a full time Cowboy…. but Gary reaches out for any help in his sport… and some of that even includes mediation to get ‘in-right’ with the bull and yourself. He also is an advisor for films, he knows Cowboy history and customs…. if you need a bunch of professional Cowboys who really know how to ride for a Western, he can provide you with professionals who will show up on time when and where with the equipment they need and who know how a film-set works. He also has livestock for rodeos and films. He was a Big-Guy on the HBO series ‘Deadwood‘ as an advisor, some segments of ‘Jackass’ were filmed at his ranch, along with ‘Cowboy Up’ and a couple others. His son Judd is in plenty of commercials… if you see cowboys in a commercial… chances are they know of the Leffew’s if they are not the Leffews’.
Growing up mostly in this area I am used to rodeo as a professional sport and recreation. It is mostly modelled off of real skills that pro Cowboys need to know and do. I’ve seen Spanish bullfights before, and I’ve seen traditional Mexican Rodeo… US rodeo seems fairly tame on the animals by comparison. Bull riding for instance seems to cause no harm to the animals… these bulls are treated like royalty by Cowboys… they know the names of the famous bulls… they like them and respect them, and cheer when a bull gives a hard ride that a Cowboy still rode well…. again, the rural flavor of this area shows when I was quite surprised to have someone holler at me that “Rodeo is animal abuse”….. I guess anyone who feels that this is terrible will never understand why I would support it. Yet if they are from the city, and don’t really know about animals much…. I can see how they’d feel that way. They don’t know…. yet I don’t expect they’d give me the ‘benefit of the doubt’ like I do them.
We were going by Gary’s place the other day, and they were taking a fellow out for a ride on a bull…. they said we could take some photos… here’s two that I like.
