Apollo, RIP

By Keith Ryan Cartwright, PBR
Posted Friday, November 13, 2009

Promising bull put down

PUEBLO, Colo. (November 12, 2009) - Stock contractor Ken King, a newcomer to the PBR, confirmed Thursday evening in a phone conversation that his prized bull Apollo was put down on Tuesday morning.

Apollo had a breakout season on the Built Ford Tough Series and had been among the Top 11 contenders selected to compete for the title of World Champion Bull at the 2009 PBR World Finals. Unfortunately, his promising career was cut short after a back injury suffered at a non-PBR event outside of Carthage, Texas, the week before the Finals.

King said, “He bucked hard and probably had the best trip of his life.”

A few hours later, Apollo was noticeably “wobbly in the back.” He was being treated by three different veterinarians and was making progress with each passing day.

In fact, King said that when Cody Lambert inquired about Apollo’s well-being last week, he told the PBR livestock director that he was not only progressing, but that it if all went as planned he would be ready to buck again at the upcoming World Cup.

Within 24 hours of that conversation, his conditioned worsened.

King described Apollo as a “playful bull,” and it’s his opinion that, “he got to feeling a little better and got to jumping around in the pen overnight and hurt himself again.”

On Monday, King flew from Las Vegas to College Station, Texas, where met with vets at a Texas A&M medical facility. Tuesday morning, he was informed they were “going to put him down.”

King said the worry over his newly purchased bull “made for a miserable two weeks in Vegas.”

For the complete story behind his purchase of the bull, go to http://www.pbrnow.com/release/?id=5038.

The King family bucked a bull named Rio Grande at the Finals, and bought several bulls during the American Bucking Bull Inc. auction, including one of the top-performing Classic bulls.

“We still had a presence at the Finals,” said King, whose family has been raising bulls for the past four years, “just not the presence we had hoped for.”

King added that Apollo’s injury was unfortunate, and the entire family is still shaken by the outcome. However, he does not regret the decision to buck him the week before leaving for Vegas, adding that he firmly believes “[Apollo] needed to be loosened up before the best bull riders in the world got on him.”

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