New competition to feature youth riding mini bucking bulls

By Ted Harbin
Posted Thursday, August 12, 2010

SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas – It’s happening again this week, and it’s featuring something
fabulously new.
When the Texas Heritage National Bank PBR Challenge presented by Priefert Ranch Equipment
and Pro-Trak Trailers comes to town, it will highlight the American Mini Bull Tour and the best young
bull riders in the business. It will be part of both performance set for 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday at
the Hopkins County Regional Civic Center.
While the whole event that benefits the Make-A-Wish Foundation of North Texas, the American
Mini Bull Tour will be another piece of the multi-level competition that also features the cowboys
from the Professional Bull Riders association, the outstanding young bulls that will buck their way to
an American Bucking Bull Inc. title and the great athletes that are part of the Professional Bullfighters
Daisy Protection Bullfight Tour.
“With our tour, we give kids ages 10 to 14 the opportunity to get on animals that are real similar
to what the big boys get on,” said Jeff Ballard with the American Mini Bull Tour. “With the weight
ratios, it’s more like the bull fits the kids. It gives the kids the chance to ride and get used to what they’re
going to ride when they get older.”
Unlike steer riding that has been the staple of youth rodeo for years, this tour features miniature
bulls. They look just like the nearly one-ton of bucking beasts that are featured in PBR events all across
this land.
“This tour gives the kids of being on a big bull, but it’s more like the big bull for their size,”
Ballard said. “These kids are 4-foot-6 and 80 pounds, and they’re on 700-pound bulls.”
But these aren’t just any kids, and that’s something special to the group producing the PBR
Challenge.
“These kids are the best of the best,” said Jim D. McLain Jr. of TwoBulls Group, who is
producing the event with Emory ranchers Donny Gowin and Jay Weddle. “This is going to be a great
part of the competition, and we know the fans here in Hopkins County will just love it.”
The action will feature the top 10 boys in the association who are rapidly making names for
themselves in the world of bull riding.
“The group of kids that are riding in Sulphur Springs are Texas State champions,” Ballard
said. “These 10 kids have made over $150,000 combined in their careers, and their just 10 to 14 years
old. It’s pretty amazing.”