KANSAS CITY, Mo. (March 4, 2010) - Bushwhacker is not unlike his father. But he sure seems to like bucking more.
The Julio Moreno bull is the son of the legendary Reindeer Dippin’.
“He has athletic ability just like his father had,” said PBR Livestock Director Cody Lambert. “Reindeer was the most athletically gifted bull, maybe, that I’ve ever seen—certainly of his era. But he didn’t love bucking. He would bring it sometimes, and sometimes he wouldn’t. He never really found anything he liked.”
Reindeer, who was ridden just twice in 43 outs on the Built Ford Tough Series, had an inconsistent career.
There were years where he could wow audiences. In 2004, for example, he was marked 48 points in an out with Scott Schiffner in Nampa. But only two years later – in what should have been the prime of his career – was marked just 38 points in the second round of the PBR World Finals.
“He was just a weird bull,” Lambert said. “They never really got him to a comfort level where he would eat and drink and do well on the road. He didn’t like it that much, but when he decided he wanted to buck, none of them could buck harder than him.”
His son Bushwhacker, who is slated to compete in the opening round this weekend at the Built Ford Tough Invitational in Kansas City, has all the athletic skill of his father, but more importantly, has shown the desire to buck.
He’s only been ridden twice in 12 career outs, and only once in six attempts at BFTS events.
In four BFTS outs last year, he was never marked lower than 44.75 points. In two outs three weeks ago in Oklahoma City, he was even the more impressive. He was marked 45.25 points in the opening round when he bucked off Shane Proctor in 1.7 seconds. Two days later, he returned for the short round, where he was selected by Ryan McConnel, and earned 47 points after sending him to the dirt in 1.9 seconds.
“When you get those things together,” said Lambert, “you get that kind of athletic ability and a competitive desire, you (have) Ty Murray in a bull.”
Lambert’s comments were part of his weekly Podcast, “In the Bull Pen,” which is posted every Thursday prior to a BFTS event.
“He may not ever win a World Championship,” Lambert said. “It’s hard to say how far Bushwhacker will go. I’ll just say right now he has all the athletic ability his father had, and he likes to buck and he likes to compete.”
Bushwhacker has been impressive on both the BFTS and the Touring Pro Division.
In his past 10 outs he’s averaging 45.2 points, which includes six BFTS events and another four Touring Pros, compared to 45.3 points at BFTS events alone.
“He’s real young and they’ve seen him a little bit,” said Lambert, who’s undecided if Bushwhacker will be in the short round in Kansas City, “but they haven’t seen him a lot.
“I hope we’re not getting ahead of ourselves. I hope that he doesn’t slow down and decide he doesn’t like it or anything like that, but he has all the tools.”
To listen to Lambert’s entire Podcast, log onto www.pbr.tv, select the “Podcast” tab from the left-hand column and then choose “In the Bull Pen with Cody Lambert.”
NEWS and NOTES
For the love of the game: Travis Briscoe, Guilherme Marchi and Kody Lostroh will be in Kansas City this weekend in spite of various injuries.
Briscoe, who dislocated a rib last week and tore some cartilage in his chest, said he feels better, but the rib hasn’t “gone back into place yet.” He added that he’s even been trying to do some jumping jacks “to loosen it up.” Briscoe said that he was told when it does go back into place, “it’ll drop (him) to (his) knees.”
Lostroh is already in Kansas City for publicity purposes, and according to PBR officials, said he’s going to try riding with a bad elbow this weekend before making any long-term decisions.
Marchi was unable to finish the event last weekend in St. Louis with a sprained wrist, but he’s expected to compete in Kansas City.
Ross Coleman, Bryan Richardson and Fabiano Vieira are all returning from the injured list as well.
Home sweet home: On Friday’s episode of CMT Cribs, Justin McBride will show off his house, land, cars and what’s in his refrigerator in typical Cribs fashion. Also giving tours of their cribs on the upcoming episode will be NASCAR drivers David Ragan and Kasey Kahne.
The episode featuring McBride will premiere this Friday, March 5 at 10:00 p.m. ET/9:00 p.m. CT on CMT. Please check your local listings for details.
PBR NOW on RFD-TV: Hosted by J.W. Hart and McBride, “PBR NOW” is a weekly live one-hour TV series that airs every Thursday on RFD-TV at 10 p.m. ET. Fans are encouraged to call in with questions at 866-547-9696, or email them to pbr@rfdtv.com.
Event Center: Follow all the action from this week’s BFTS event in Kansas City by logging on to www.pbr.com and entering the “Event Center,” which is accessible from the tab located at the top of the main Web page. The Event Center provides live scoring, live blogging and event-related Podcasts and interviews.
