Iron Cowboy 3...A Fan's Review

Dallas Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, TX

My good friend Brandy attended the PBR's Iron Cowboy 3 last Saturday in Arlington, Texas.  She was gracious enough to agree to guest-write a blog piece about her experience.  

Brandy writes,

Being a Texas native,  I grew up loving the Dallas Cowboys and Texas Stadium. Although we don’t have our beloved Texas Stadium anymore, we do have the new Texas-sized Cowboys Stadium, aka "Jerry’s House". If you ever have the chance to attend this event I highly recommend it. The stadium alone is worth the ticket price! When you walk in to this monster stadium you can’t help but stand it awe, then add in my favorite addiction, that is the PBR, and you have a magical night in store!

The whole scene is charged with electricity and you just can’t wait to see what happens. It’s always a surprise because with this format you never know what you might see. I was thrilled with JB Mauney winning the event! It made my night complete for sure! The one thing that makes this event different is the bracket format and thus the lack of 8 second rides. That is the name of the game though so you just have to sit back or stand up and scream, in my case, and enjoy the show! 

I came home and replayed the event back as soon as I got in the door because you experience two very different shows when you are at an event vs the telecast on TV.

JW Hart gave his opening commentary and in that stated that half the people where there to see Bushwacker’s come back and I have to agree with him. As much as I love the riders, I also love the bulls and more importantly, Bushwacker. I have adored this big boy since he bucked on to the scene and into my life. I was excited and nervous for him on this night. As most everyone knows Bush was coming back from a surgery to remove bone fragments in both back feet. So there was a rush of feelings just knowing he was in the house and ready to buck! At first glance in the arena you see the set up is much like the PBR Finals with bulls bucking out of both ends of the arena. Behind the chutes are all the bulls on the stadium floor for all to see. I would think that if you’ve got a good bull, this is place he is going to prove what he is made of, because there is a lot of noise and fireworks going off right over the top of the chutes, so for them to come out and perform in that type of environment proves they have what it takes to be in the big leagues!

Reigning World Champion Bucking Bull, Bushwacker.  Photo courtesy of Brandy Appleton

Now on to the bulls! I thought the bull power was great! Very tough rank bulls to get by and few did.

Round 1~ RMEF Gun Powder & Lead with a 43.75 looked amazing as always! Palm Springs with a 44 & Carrillo Cartel with a 44.25 we just as powerful as they come. Mesa Pate's new bull, Will James , didn’t score as well as I would have liked for him to with 41.75 but he is one of my new favorites and I think he will just get better & better.

Round 2~ Train Wreck brought it scoring 44.25 the highest score of this round. V5 is looking to be another great bull and his score of 44.00 showed it. New Frontier's Grey Squirrel also had a great out bringing in a score of 44.00.

Round 3~ This round was filled with rank rough bulls. Austin Meier gutted it out and made an awesome ride on Rango. I didn’t think the two would match up well but Austin showed why he is consistently in the race for the title. To me this was the ride of the night. It was so exciting to see him put it on Rango and bring in a score of 91.00 with Rango scoring 44.50. Shepherd Hills Sod Buster with a 44.00 & Perfect Poison were rank as always with a 45.00.

Round 4~ Mulligan Man took the lowest score in this round with a 44.00.  I was glad to see he didn’t flip Austin around like a rag doll this time. Shepherd Hills Tested with a 45.00 & Shepherd Hills Trapper 46.00 had great outs, these are two bulls that seem to put out great scores with every out.  Smackdown should have brought a higher score and in my opinion was the best bull of the night! He was only scored a 45.50 but he put one of the best riders in the PBR down and put him down hard! Smackdown was awesome! I only wished his score reflected it.

Round 5~ Asteroid 45.50 and Bushwacker 46.00 were both amazing!! This is what people come to see, the best against the best. Asteroid has really proven himself worthy of a BBOY title. He is a great competitor and always performs amazing.

JB Mauney on Bushwacker.  Photo courtesy of Brandy Appleton.

From the time JB starting taking his wrap till the buzzer rang I didn’t take a breath and time stood still for me... Praise the Lord! Bushwacker looked solid! 4 seconds into it, it was so loud in the arena and people were yelling and cheering that I didn’t realize JB didn’t make the 8. It was a double edge sword for me. On one hand I wanted JB to ride him but for Bushwacker I wanted him to have that great return and not be ridden. He still has that air, and once he drops a few more pounds, he will be back to his old self! I could breathe and be happy at the moment for him and his fabulous return to competition.  Hallelujah and thank you Dr. Warner!

Round 6~  Bucky brought in a huge score of 47.00! I have always like Bucky and his snotitude since the first time I saw him buck! He may have put himself in the mix for BBOY if he can keep that up.

All in all it was an exciting fun night of PBR action! My group of great PBR friends have a saying when we go to events about how happy we are to be there, we call it our PBR smile! I had mine on all day and late into the next morning! It’s my favorite escape from reality!

 Guest blogger & fellow bull lover,

Brandy

My sincere thanks to Brandy for sharing her experience at Iron Cowboy 3 and her love for the bulls, especially Bushwacker!  I hope one day I can attend this great event and experience this Texas-sized rush for myself!