Bull Riding in Western Australia

When I'm feeling stressed (like now with 13 finals smashed into one week) I always think of moments when I was completely relaxed and envy my past self.

Like in 2008 when I had spent 4 months on the Australian East Coast and just left for the West Coast. I wanted to find the real Australia, or at least what I imagined the real Australia to be like. You know, red soil, lots of kangaroos and no tourists, a lonely road seemingly leading nowhere…that kind of stuff. That wasn’t exactly what I found, but what I found instead was pretty much as real as Australia can be.

Beautiful Perth

“We’re not staying in a hostel again!” – that’s what my friend Juliane and I decided when we got to Perth. We wanted to couchsurf! Stay with some real Aussies and adopt the Aussie way of life! So we found Rod, a passionate bull rider in his late thirties. We had hardly been at his place for 30 minutes when we already left again – to go to a Western Australian rodeo! Rod was going to ride a mean bull named “Mr. Slinky”, and so were his 13- and 14- year old nephews. Well, they weren’t going to ride a real bull, just a steer. But even those can literally rock you like hurricane. 
The event started with "bull riding" for the little ones: heaps of kids, maybe around 5 or 6 years old, climbed on several sheep’s backs and raced through the arena. It was so cute to see the mixture of fear and enthusiasm in their eyes when the sheep started wiggling and hopping around.

 The arena was just an oval bunch of fences and some tipped earth, but if sufficed.  The rodeo scene in Western Australia isn’t really what you would call commercial. It’s more like the same old friends always meeting up in different smalltowns to ride some bulls. So the atmosphere is very friendly and welcoming. Everyone seems to know  everybody else and if not it only takes two or three beers till you lie in each other’s arms and sing cheesy country songs together.

Usually a rodeo begins with the kids riding and chasing the sheep. Afterwards the U18 girls and boys have the chance to climb the small but pretty wild steers. 

And then the real action begins for all those over 18. First up: barrel race! This is an all-girls thing. They race around big old barrels, making quick turns, trying to set up a new time record. Then the horseback riders are up. Horse bucking isn’t considered as dangerous as bull riding because the horses can’t hurt you that much and don’t have any horns. But their jumps are breathtakingly quick and falling off a horse isn’t really a pleasant experience. 

And last but not least it’s time for the main event. The real bull riding! To enablethe riders to get on the bull’s back the bull is caged in the bucking chute so he can’t move. The bull rider is now able to mount him and grab the rope around the bull’s neck with one hand, the only grip available. The other hand has to remain free and in the air - And that’s exactly what Rod, our couchsurfing host was doing when Juliane and I were accompanying him to his rodeo. From a safe distance behind the fences we saw how the gate was opened and the bull stormed into the arena. He twisted and kicked to get Rod off his back. In the meantime the rodeo clown, dressed in jacket and pants with colorful pieces of cloth jumped around the bull, distracting him, ready to help Rod when he was bucked off. That didn’t take long, although I guess every second on a bucking bull feels like ages. But Rod didn’t even make the required 8 seconds to get into the second round. He still managed to hurt his rip, though. Bull riding is a pretty dangerous sport afterall. But with the right amount of alcohol you’re not feeling any pain, so quickly after the last ride the bar opened and there was a big party with lots of country music.

So you’d think the dangerous part of the rodeo was over. Well, it wasn’t. The rodeo folks love their beer and whiskey and they don’t seem to mind drunk driving or picking up a fight after wrecking somebody else’s car while drunk driving. Especially the village youth seemed to be great at picking up a fight and insulting each other with phrases like “What the fuck? Did you just tell me to fuck my sister? Fucking fuck your fucking sister!” -  “No, I’ll fuck your fucking sister!” At least that’s what I witnessed. But hey, it was kind of funny!

Now, you might ask yourself “and what about you, did you get on a bull?” – of course I didn’t, I’m too much of a chicken. And you have to train and practice for an event like that. But I did sit on a bull a few days later. He was old and standing completely still, just minding his own business. Otherwise I wouldn't have dared to climb onto him. But still, I kind of feel like a bull rider now ;)