Chicago Limestone

Ahhh...Chicago.  I was all excited to settle in to my recliner and watch some bull riding - the PBR's 2nd stop of the 2014 season.  The broadcast started out well.  Former bull rider, arena foreman and Ring of Honor member Jerome Robinson was explaining moving the bulls around, coming in to the arena.  I love to see footage of the bulls!  I thought it was going to be a great night!  What I quickly found out was that between the low scores from the judges and bulls slipping on the awful white limestone "dirt", that the only way I was going to make it thru the event was to double my blood pressure medicine!  Trust me, watching those bulls slip and fall made me crazy!  So, due to the "conditions in Chicago", limestone bags...60,000 1-pound bags...was the best the crew could muster to cover the floor of the Allstate Arena.  Now, I know those guys work hard, and yes, perhaps getting good dirt in Chicago is difficult but can someone please tell me why...WHY do you risk the health of the bulls?  The very valuable bucking athletes???  I and every other bull fan could see the bulls were unsure of their footing, not bucking the way they usually do.  Hello?  Maybe next year, if the PBR returns to Chicago, it could bring some actual dirt so the bulls safety is not endangered?

Ok, let's move on.  This past weekend was a Pure PBR show with Craig Hummer, JW Hart, and Leah Garcia moving around the arena and behind the chutes.  Bull fighter Shorty Gorham was ill and did not make it to Chicago, so Jesse Byrne filled in, from the dirt.  Jesse did a great job with insights about the bulls but it was hard to understand him over the background noise from the arena, which was too loud.  The announcers did mention that the new "60 Second Clock" rule will become effective at the Sacramento event in a few weeks time.  I hope they actually enforce it.  Another thing I would love to see them do (big surprise here) is give bull names and scores.  I've noticed that when they do the Pure PBR broadcasts that even less information is given about the bulls.  Has anyone else noticed that?

One huge puzzlement for me was the judges scoring for both bull and rider.  I thought the scores were low last week in New York, and I think they were as low, if not lower, in Chicago.  There were some bulls that did buck well, despite the limestone, and no bull score higher than 43.75 points was awarded the whole evening Saturday.  In fact, the lowest bull score of Round 1 was 29 points!  On Sunday, the lowest bull score was 27.5 points in Round 2, with no bull scored over 43.5 points in the long round.  When commenting about the scores, JW Hart said "maybe the judges didn't have enough coffee this morning", amongst other reasons.  Director of Livestock, Cody Lambert, said the bulls don't get exercised as much in the winter, and they need to eat more to have energy to fight off the cold.  Eating more makes them sluggish.  Ok, fair enough, some of them were sluggish but not to the point of a score in the twenties!

THE SITUATION from Chad Berger was one of those bulls that bucked great on Saturday night and was scored a 41.5 points.  He's a smart bull, and he was fussy in the chute...always has been...but once he got out, bucked hard.

I liked the segment where Chad Burger and Jesse Byrne broke down THE SITUATION'S buck off of Tyrell Pozzobon.  Chad said, "the bull, I thought, bucked pretty good for being laying around the house since October".  I wish more of those segments would appear.  I think it's interesting to hear the stock contractor's thoughts on how his bull bucked.

FLINT, another of Chad Berger's bulls who had a really good out.  42.25 points was Flint's score.

I must give a shout out to Josie McElroy, daughter of K-C Bucking Bull's Kenny & Cristy McElroy, who debuted her bulls in Chicago.  It was so exciting to see another young female stock contractor on the back of the chutes, with great young bulls ready to buck in the PBR.  Josie's three bulls all bucked Saturday night in Round 1.  LITTLE ROOSTER (42 pts), CANDY CRUSH (41.75 pts) and DRACULA (42 pts) all bucked well. Dracula and Little Rooster also bucked again Sunday.  (I must say, and it might be my Transylvanian heritage, but I really liked Dracula!)  Having written a blog about Josie back in May of 2012 (titled, "Josie & The Bucking Bulls"), I was really proud of her and her bovines in Chicago.  Keep rocking it, Josie!!

Since the topic of bulls falling down has already been mentioned, I feel the need to say that it really irks me when a bull goes down and the only thing the commentators say is about the health of the riders.  Now, please don't get me wrong, the cowboys health and safety is of the utmost importance, BUT so is the bull's!  I would sure like to know that the animal is ok, after witnessing a scary fall.

The Championship Round on Sunday was packed with great bulls.  For the first time in 2014, we got to see Chad Berger's bull, SMACKDOWN, buck.  Even though Smackdown was ridden for 89.5 points, he still looked great, picking up right where he left off in 2013.

The great SMACKDOWN.  Will he be in the running for World Champion Bucking Bull again this year?

The 2500 pound giant MISSISSIPPI HIPPY (after his buck-off in NY), who scored his 20th straight buck off in Chicago, and exploded out of the chute and had Lachlan Richardson on the ground so fast, it wasn't even funny, and the bull was scored 34.5 points!!!  You can believe that the BS flag came out on that one!!  I almost have to believe that one of the judges scores wasn't tallied!  That score was a slap in the face to the stock contractor and the bull!  Ridiculous!!!

Matt Triplett thought he would match up good against JACK DANIEL'S TENNESSEE HONEY.  Honey said, think again young cowboy, as he trotted out of the arena with his 45 point score!

The high bull score of the entire event was posted by DAVID'S DREAM, who had no problem putting Valdiron de Oliviera on the ground.  The bull was awarded 46.25 points.  Unfortunately, it was hard to see the bull buck because they used the overhead camera on this particular out, and that camera angle does not show the audience how the bull bucks.

There were only four rides in the Championship Round, to end the event.  The bulls in this round did not seem quite as bothered by the limestone, thankfully!  I think having the limestone packed down during intermission helped a bit.

My carrying on this week about the "dirt" is because I love the bulls so much and never, ever want to see an injury, that could be prevented by having better dirt!  I also hope that with the PBR moving down to Georgia then making it's way west, that warmer weather will prevail and the bulls will be more comfortable and have easier travel, both for the bovines and their humans!





All photographs by Susan Hanrahan