Around 500 people turned up to the annual Bull-a-rama at the St. Paul Ag. Corral this past Saturday where both the cowboys and bulls were eager to get a piece of each other.
Over 30 rank bulls were present at the competition, which also included miniature horse riding as well as beer gardens and a dance.
“It was an excellent turnout at the bull riding and the dance to follow was good as well,” said Karen Trach, one of the organizers of the competition put on by the TLR & R Bull-a-rama club. Trach said attendance for the Bull-a-rama was up from last year and has been steadily growing since its inception approximately 15 years ago.
The first half of the bull riding competition went smoothly, but in the second half one bull in-particular wanted to show some of its disdain by refusing to go back into the pen and parading around the arena for nearly 15 minutes.
Eventually some of the other bulls were sent out to coax the renegade and bring him in, but not before some near collisions with the bullfighters and a few charges into the protective railing. After the dust settled, the bull riding resumed and Cole Young from Grande Prairie was named the winner with a score of 84.5 out of 100.
“The bulls were pretty even tonight,” Young said after the competition. “Everybody was riding good so I guess it was just the luck of the draw.”
Riding since the age of the 13 and currently competing as a semi-pro, Young commented on what a delay like the one experienced earlier in the evening is like for the cowboys waiting their turn to ride.
“If you joke around it keeps you smiling and not too focused on how long it’s going to take,” he said.
For winning the event, Young and the other finalists split a $2,500 cheque.
The TLR & R Bull-a-rama club would like to thank the local sponsors and volunteers in and around St. Paul that helped make Bull-a-rama 2012 a success.
