Bull Riding - 4

This is the last set of Gene Ratliff's bull ride. I am hoping that 9 photos don't kill your e-mail. I feel like I have dragged this ride out long enough. I probably should have started this series with a note that Gene appeared to be OK afterwards. He walked away from this ride with a limp and less breath in his lungs.


The last photo yesterday had the bull starting to turn into the cowboy. The photos today show what happened in the next second or so. From my first photo of this ride to the last, the time stamps changed just 7 seconds during which time I took 68 photos of this ride. To get a score for riding a bull, you have to stay on it for 8 seconds.

I'm guessing these cowboys wear chest protection in addition to the helmet but Gene takes a couple of BIG hits to his chest that throw him around like a ragdoll. In the first few photos today, you can see just how high he was thrown by looking at the height of his hips - and this is mitigated due to his hand still attached to the bull.

The sixth photo is the first one I have of his hand finally free (sorry for the butt-shot). The bull takes one more big shot at him as a going away present knocking Gene many feet back onto the ground while the clowns divert the bull's attention away from Gene.

The judge awarded him another ride due to the bull buckling to its knees early in the ride. Gene looked at the announcer and says he will take it (we did not see any of the re-rides). People that do this sport are just made different. 























Comments

Post a Comment

Please include your name in your comment so I know the author! Thanks.

Popular posts from this blog

Completed Wood Project

Image
Yes, I made another cutting board and do not ask me what I will do with it. I have no idea.....sit on a table I guess. I really had not planned on making any more cutting boards until I saw this piece of parota wood. It was a new species for me and it had a beautiful end grain pattern. The sap wood provided a nice color contrast that could be blended into the final product. I had seen a photo a month or so before of a similar board and liked its looks. Picking up the piece of parota told me to make, yet again, another end grain cutting board. The two slabs  (earlier photos/e-mail) were essentially identical to each other but I intentionally made the two pieces of parota to be offset from the center (gives the stairstep look). Each 12-1/2" wide slab was cut into 1-7/8" pieces - a total of 11 pieces from each slab - 22 pieces total. I then alternated the pieces from the two slabs while keeping the order of cut. The final board measures 12" x 17-1/2" x 1-7/8". Whe
Read more

Springtime

Image
It's been a while since I messed with your mailbox so Howdy and I hope each of you are doing well. A few of you have sent notes and updates and they are always appreciated. This is too long but summarizes our life the past few months. We have been busy this spring with some major cleanup of the woods/brush around our house. The area in front of our house was cleaned up in the original construction. By cleaned up, I mean you could safely walk (mostly erect) through the area without fear of death by 1000 thorns. The other areas were left much less accessible with survival maintenance only but still no clear access. Though I have always wanted to see the garage-side area to look more like our front, we never made it happen in the 11+ years we have lived here. We had three obstacles that are more like excuses but they were very real. The first issue is our fundamental frugality. We could not bring ourselves to pay the several thousand dollars to have someone come in and do the work. Th
Read more

Burst Bubble

Image
About a month ago, I picked up an old Craftsman 18" scroll saw for a whopping $15. It satisfied a couple of points: 1) cheap test of whether I would like scroll saw stuff, and 2) small and light enough to stow it out of the way in my shop when not in use. This tool is in good shape but is a beater with vibration. Fortunately, I can clamp it down to my  very heavy assembly table. I have no idea how anyone could use this thing without something very substantial to clamp it to. I played around with it on some 1/4" plywood to get the feel and then put it away for a bit. I then saw a piece I liked on a Facebook group and the person shared his template. It called for cutting 1" thick stock slightly smaller than a sheet of paper. I looked around my shop and picked up a piece of cherry and began work. In hindsight, I'm not sure such a hard wood was a good choice for my first project with that thickness. The piece needed a very small blade (#5) and had some challenging turns/
Read more