Brandon Sun - PRINT EDITION
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Buck Moen of Elrose, Sask., holds on during the bareback event of the Manitoba Finals Rodeo at the Wheat City Stampede at Westman Place on Friday.
The truth is bulls don’t care.
Tie-down ropers wait to compete during the Wheat City Stampede in Westman Place on Friday evening. (TIM SMITH/BRANDON SUN)
Alistair Hagan tries to grab onto a steer during the steer wrestling event of the Manitoba Finals Rodeo at the Wheat City Stampede at Westman Place on Friday. (TIM SMITH/BRANDON SUN)
Leighton Schroeder of Carlyle, Sask., goes eye to eye with a steer during the steer wrestling event on Day 2 of the Manitoba Finals Rodeo at the 2012 Wheat City Stampede at Westman Place on Friday evening. (TIM SMITH/BRANDON SUN)
Kirk Thompson of Beausejour tries to hold on during Friday’s saddle bronc event at the Manitoba Finals Rodeo. (TIM SMITH/BRANDON SUN)
Danny Vandenameele takes a spill during Friday night’s bareback event. (TIM SMITH/BRANDON SUN)
They don’t care what you had for lunch or how your day is going. They don’t care that you’re wearing your lucky cowboy hat or haven’t shaved your beard in a month due to superstition.
And they certainly don’t care how old you are — they just want you off their back.
A look at the Manitoba Finals Rodeo leaderboard shows the riders don’t care either. After the first go-round, 39-year-old Mark Fraser sat atop the standings, sticking an 84-point ride on Prairie Rodeo bull G-Force.
"He was awesome," the Esterhazy, Sask., cowboy said about G-Force, complementing the other half of the athletic amalgam in the arena.
It was a good start for a rider that hasn’t competed at the MFR in a decade. The respite wasn’t because Fraser isn’t talented enough to qualify, instead, the cowboy had retired, hanging up his spurs for good — or so he thought.
That is until this year, when the adrenalin junkie knew he had to get back in the arena.
"I got a passion for those bulls. I love them bulls," Fraser said. "I don’t get nervous at all and I never was, I love it. It’s just a pure passion. I crave (being in the chute on a bull) — get the music cranking, get the building rocking and get the adrenalin running."
Fraser admits that when he first came back, the riding took a toll on his body, but soon enough his body adjusted and instead of going to one rodeo every couple of weeks, like he planned, he was all the way back.
"Pretty soon I was going to two rodeos on a weekend," Fraser said. "My body started to come back. It doesn’t allow me to move the same way I want to compete with the kids, but I still got it."
The time off has also been good for Fraser, both physically and mentally.
"There is a whole different outlook now," Fraser said. "I’m still old school and there are some things I don’t want to change, but there was a lot of eye-openers."
"It’s a mental game and just when you think you’ve got it in the bag the bull will throw you on the ground," he added
While Fraser may be old school, he’s surrounded by young blood. Of the 10 competitors in the bull-riding event, only Fraser is in his 30s. In fact, most of them couldn’t buy a beer in the United States.
"They call me grandpa," Fraser said with a smile.
And a quick look over his shoulder in the standings might reveal his toughest competition. If Fraser is a grandpa, 17-year-old Cody Floyd is just a tot. Youth aside, nobody is underestimating the lanky cowboy from Kipling, Sask., especially after his 81-point ride on Prime Time Rodeos bull Ringer.
"He bucked me off earlier in the year so it was kind of revenge," Floyd said, sitting in second spot after the first go-round.
While Fraser has been riding for more than two decades, Floyd rode his first bull in 2005 when he travelled with two friends to a high school rodeo and suddenly found himself on the back of a bull.
"I just got on and I was a 64 on my very first bull ever — I was hooked from there," Floyd said.
And the differences between the two riders doesn’t end with age and experience. While both live to get in the chute and be strapped to more than a 1,000 pounds of pure muscle, Floyd said it’s good to be a little nervous before the gate swings open, believing it keeps him sharp and on top of his game.
"I think it’s healthy to be nervous," he said, adding he believes he is riding as well as he has all season right now. "It’s like pre-game jitters."
Looking ahead, the 17-year-old plans on getting his pro-card next year so he can ride bulls near and far on the circuit. For the 39-year-old, a trip to the World Senior Professional Bull Riders Finals would be the icing on what has already been a great career.
The two cowboys are essentially on opposite ends of the spectrum in many ways in their career, but in Brandon they find themselves staring directly across the arna at each other. Each man potentially standing in the way of the other from capturing a MFR buckle.
And while they’ll fight tooth and nail to stay on the bulls they draw and beat the other, when it’s all over, win or lose, they know more about each other than anyone else.
"There’s always going to be some rivalry because it’s a competition, but if someone makes a good ride you’re going to go up and congratulate him," Floyd said.
The Wheat City Stampede continues today and tomorrow at the Keystone Centre. For a full schedule, visit wheatcitystampede.com.
» ctweed@brandonsun.com
Republished from the Brandon Sun print edition October 20, 2012
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The truth is bulls don’t care.
They don’t care what you had for lunch or how your day is going. They don’t care that you’re wearing your lucky cowboy hat or haven’t shaved your beard in a month due to superstition.
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The truth is bulls don’t care.
They don’t care what you had for lunch or how your day is going. They don’t care that you’re wearing your lucky cowboy hat or haven’t shaved your beard in a month due to superstition.
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