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A taste of the West in Fairfax
The Patriot Center floor was buried under 8 inches of packed dirt, trucked in from the campus' construction sites, for a two-day Professional Bull Riders event last weekend.
The already-unrecognizable arena housed, in addition to a healthy audience, nearly 50 bulls queued in a series of elaborate corrals.
At its longest, the main event is quick – riders are supposed to be on for only eight seconds at the most – and in some cases, rides are of the blink-and-you-miss-it length.
Behind the brief and often violent rides was a significant setup for the arena that took all of Friday and Saturday morning. Three Bobcats brought dirt in on Friday, before it was tilled and cleared of any rocks, and packed it down to the standard 8 inches.
“We're a construction site masquerading as a campus right now,” said Patriot Center General Manager Barry Geisler of the free dirt, which afforded the Professional Bull Riders a price break so long as they returned the dirt to the construction sites by Monday.
Beyond the price break, PBR promoter Dan Haus was happy with the quality.
“There's good dirt, and there's bad dirt,” he said Friday. The PBR usually performs at venues where they must truck in their own dirt, including the Georgia Dome recently. “This is good dirt.”
A little over 24 hours later, Haus' assessment would be contradicted by Mark Johanson, 23, who spent nearly a minute out cold on that good dirt after he was unceremoniously tossed by a bull.
“Put your hands together for a little healing power,” the announcer encouraged the crowd while medics attended to Johanson.
“He's not real sure where he is,” Haus said as Johanson was gingerly walked off. “He don't know if he's in Fairfax, Virginia, or Fairfield, Texas, right now.”
Thirty minutes later, the Alberta, Canada, native sat in the stands with an ice pack to his head.
“That's just 'cause the dirt's too hard, it's supposed to be softer,” he said of his injury, for which medics told him he's “supposed to go to a doctor.”
Johanson's injury means little to him, except that he won't be able to ride a second time at the event. Riders certainly get worse, including broken bones and lacerated internal organs.
“It's an occupational hazard. It's amazing how nonchalant these guys are about some of this stuff. It's nothing I can understand,” Haus said.
Cory Rasch, 29, has been atop bulls since he was 5 years old. For the first time in seven years, he spent 2007 off the main circuit after a bad injury at Madison Square Garden, which can be seen on YouTube.
Despite the severity of the injury, he was back riding after 15 weeks and said he never had any second thoughts about getting back on.
“I lacerated my kidney and spleen and broke four ribs and a vertebrae in my back,” he said.
Rasch said the injury happened when the bull threw him up against the metal chutes and “somehow got his horn up under my vest, so there wasn't any kind of cushioning between me and him.”
Rasch said he sees himself riding for another four to five years, after which he hopes to get into the livestock contracting side of the sport. Riders can begin competing when they're 18, and retirement ages can range from mid-20s to early 30s, barring serious injury.
“It could end next weekend for me,” Rasch said. “I don't want to think about that, but you never know – it's a dangerous sport.”
Rodeo clowns are a well-known way to alleviate some of the risk to riders. Bullfighters, as they are now referred to, traded the clown garb for sponsored jerseys several years ago.
Jacob Seaford, 19, and Thomas Alleman, 20, grew up together in Lake Charles, La., participating in rodeo events. Now the two travel with the PBR as bullfighters and both stress they have no ambition to become a rider.
“I won't ride 'em, I won't get on the back of 'em,” Alleman said smiling.
Despite being thrown to the ground on Saturday by one of the bulls, Seaford agrees it's safer as a bullfighter.
“As long as everything goes smoothly, I'll stay on my feet,” he said.
The other half of the equation, the bulls, live a much nicer life than one would assume from their brief and aggravated performances in the ring.
Haus said bulls prized for “good genes” can sell for upward of a $100,000 at auction. Like with thoroughbred racehorses, fans can get involved by buying shares in a bull.
“They work about as much as I do,” Rasch said. “Eight seconds a weekend and then they go home and don't do anything except eat good grain and hit the hay.”
The bucking comes from a bull's dislike of having a person atop him, and two ropes, one at the chest and one before the back legs, further irritate the animal, as a fly would, explained rider Brent Klaus, 33. Riders' scores are based not only on their own performance, but on how hard the bull makes it for them.
“You want a bull that bucks nice and true, kind of a high spin and consistent so you get your timing,” he said. “They know what the game is, though, they get out there and they're ready to buck.”
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