Last weekend, with its great bull pen, sent me into a philosophical mood and I began to ponder these questions about bulls' performance and judges' scoring.
I've had some of these questions before, and I'll have them again. Bottom line is: I like high-jumping, arm-jerking bulls. Dirty bulls are fine with me. I think spinning is overrated. Don't shoot me.
- I'm not talking about bulls that just romp down the arena in a straight line, but when a rider gets a re-ride because of a bull he can hardly stay on, just because the bull doesn't turn back, doesn't it make you wonder if spinning is overrated?
- Is spinning overrated?
- In the battle between "dirty" bulls vs. "honest" bulls, who wins? Why do people talk about honest bulls as if they were morally good and about dirty bulls as if they were dishonest? Isn't getting a rider off your back the honest point, no matter how you do it?
- Does judging penalize the so-called dirty bulls?
- Where have all the high-jumping, arm-jerking bulls gone? How would they be scored today?
- How do "styles" of bucking come into fashion and how do they go out of fashion?
- Why is it that some bulls that are almost never ridden - I'll use 136 Silver Wings (D&H Page) as an example - get only average bull scores? (Career buckoff average: 98.28%. Ridden once in 38 Built Ford Tough outs. Average score: 42.78.)
- Should a bull be penalized for not having the "wow factor" even if no one can ride him?
- What about 5171 Pretty Boy made him a bull some riders (in a non-PBR event) once voted not to get on?
- What was it about the bulls this weekend that made them so exciting? There were no particularly astonishing outs, no 46-47 point outs, only four 45+ outs, but these bulls were fun to watch. Why?
- Before this weekend, when was the last round in which no Jeff Robinson bulls went out?
I've had some of these questions before, and I'll have them again. Bottom line is: I like high-jumping, arm-jerking bulls. Dirty bulls are fine with me. I think spinning is overrated. Don't shoot me.
