When bull riding first started most of the attention was on the bull riders with both their courage and athletic ability. When the Professional Bull Riders Association was formed and bull riding became a popular sport to watch on TV suddenly the quality of the bulls became much more important.
Today in the PBR bulls “win” 60-70% of the time, even more in the finals. Bulls are specifically bred for their bucking abilities and there is more emphasis on fitness.
At the professional levels, bull owners have gotten together and formed sanctioned teams where individual investors buy a portion of the bull and share in winnings. Sort of like sponsoring a NASCAR team or a syndicated race horse. Many celebrities are involved as well as the more successful bull riders like Ty Murray.
There are currently 16 PBR sanctioned bull teams, each of which has 3 bulls and 2 alternates. And like race horses, the game is all about having a very successful bucking bull which you can then use to sell breeding rights for large amounts of money. The PBR fee to enter a team is $30,000 so this is not a cheap hobby.
Here’s the current leading PBR bull team:
There’s an association that has formed to help you keep up with the bucking bull world (United States Bucking Bull Association). You can check them out at: USBBA.
(the picture at the top is Mossy Oak Mudslinger, the PBR 2006 bull of the year, and the one below that is Big Bucks, the PBR 2005 bull of the year)