No room for bull talkers here

Paul Clinton

With this year’s edition of the Orange County Fair winding down, bull

riders electrified a packed house at Citizen’s Business Bank Arena on

Saturday during two shows.

Riders clung to 1,500-pound bulls, who bucked and hopped and threw

17 of the 18 riders at the 2 p.m. show. Only one rider hung on for

the benchmark eight seconds.

Audiences roared with applause and cheers, even for riders who

wound up face first in the arena dirt.

“It’s one of our premier grandstand events,” said Doug Lofstrom,

the fair’s director of operations. “Rodeo and bull riding speaks to

fair tradition.”

For 46 years, fair managers have turned to Cotton Rosser to stage

rodeo and bull riding events. Rosser, the founder of Flying U Rodeo

Co., stages a string of similar events across the western U.S. He

puts on about 60 events a year.

In acknowledging the event’s thrill-a-second appeal, Rosser points

to the razor’s edge of safety that the riders often walk.

“Nobody feels sorry for the bull,” Rosser said. “It’s the most

dangerous event in rodeo.”

Before they’re allowed to enter the bull riding contest,

participants must provide proof of insurance. They must also chip $50

in to the purse. Rosser provides $500.

Riders are then judged by two officials and given points for

style. A rider that stays on the bull for the eight seconds is

immediately elevated to the winner’s circle if no one else can make

the time limit.

In addition to the bull riding, the event features a few other

diversions including a rope-twirling exhibition and Old West gunfight

between two rodeo clowns and a midget.

To top off the event, four cowboys are invited for a game of

“Mexican poker,” as it is called. Four volunteers sit at a table in

the middle of the bull ring, playing cards. Two bulls are released

into the arena; and the last cowboy sitting in his chair wins $500.

“The only guys that’ll do it are Marines from Camp Pendleton,”

Rosser said.

In addition to the two Saturday shows, Rosser is staging two shows

at 2 and 8 p.m. today that will have a decidedly Mexican flavor. The

event, called Fiesta del Charro, features only south-of-the-border

riders. Some women will ride bulls sidesaddle.

Crowds showed up Saturday to “see and feel the action,” Lofstrom

said. A closer look reveals that even the bulls enjoy the thrill of

the show, he said.

“The bulls are performers,” Lofstrom said. “When they get into the

chute, it’s show time.”