Professional Bull Riders Come to NH

Since being established in 1992, Professional Bull Riders—PBR—has never managed to make it to New Hampshire. Based off of the large turnout from their inaugural competition in the Granite State, a spectator would never know that this was the case. Excited fans from all across the Northeast gathered in Manchester, NH at the SNHU Arena to witness the first ever PBR Manchester Invitational on January 18th and 19th. Across the two-day spectacle, thirty six of PBR’s finest did everything they could to win.

For those unfamiliar with the sport, the PBR circuit is the highest level of competition in the world for bull riders. Riders attempt to stay on ferociously bucking bulls for eight seconds. A rider has one hand tied to the bull with a bull rope, while the other hand, called the “free hand,” must remain in the air at all times. There are no stirrups or saddle to help the rider keep his seat. Riders and bulls are assigned to one another via computerized lottery, except for the final round, where riders are allowed to pick which bull they want to ride.

For each ride, the rider is judged by a panel of judges, who each give a score from 0 to 100. The scores of four judges are averaged to give the rider his final score. If they are bucked off before that time limit, they don’t qualify for that ride and receive a score of 0. If they reach the time limit, a panel of experienced judges give both the bull and rider a score of up to 50. The bull is scored for how difficult it was to ride, while the rider is scored for how skillfully he rode the bull during those 8 seconds. Any time on the bull past 8 seconds is not scored by the judges. Finally, the bull and rider’s scores are added together to give a total score for the ride.

PBR’s Manchester Invitational featured the best bull riders in the world today, including then-number one in the world, Kaique Pacheco (now ranked fourth) and the current world number one rider, Jess Lockwood. Lockwood was also the PBR World Champion in 2019. Lockwood won the competition with 269.25 points over three rides. But the top spot was hotly contested as there were four other riders within twelve points of Lockwood’s championship score. Lockwood was set to compete last in the competition; therefore, it was not until the final ride that Lockwood was able to secure the win.

The entire arena was full of patriotic spectacles. United States Marine Corps recruiters set up a competition that challenged everyone to complete a certain number of pull-ups in exchange for different prizes. Although the USMC were not official sponsors of the event, PBR took some time towards the end of the competition to thank them all for their service. Official sponsors such as Boot Barn, Ford, and Coors had colorful, exciting ads and opportunities for crowd engagement.

Towards the end of a fantastic series of rides, our lovely master of ceremonies Flint Rasmussen commented on a desire to return to the Granite State—”I hope a year from today, we’re here again. Because this is a blast!” He was met with an emphatic cheer from the crowd.

Contrary to some misconceptions, PBR had not purposely avoided New Hampshire. Because of the sort of coordination that goes into planning and running a bull-riding competition, PBR has often been constrained by their ability to schedule arenas this far north. PBR was excited to be able to satisfy its fan base here. Outside of PBR, one of the security workers in the SNHU Arena noted that when she had first started, there had been a much smaller bull-riding competition hosted.

Following PBR’s Manchester Invitational, PBR was heading across the country to their Sacramento Invitational in Sacramento, CA. The Review was lucky enough to speak briefly with James White— PBR’s Senior Tour Production Manager—about how the organization would manage such a large travel in such a short amount of time. White is responsible for coordinating the load-in and load-out of each PBR Stadium. He works for months on making sure that each event’s set up occurs on time and efficiently. To get to Sacramento, PBR would be loading up nine semi trucks packed full of gear and start their journey early in the morning on the Monday following Manchester. The trek to Sacramento would take more than 50-straight hours on the road and would schedule the crew to California in time to check into their hotel rooms at roughly 2:30am on Thursday, January 23rd. A few measly hours of sleep later, and the real work would begin: setting up for another bull riding extravaganza. Still, though, one major question remained: if there are only nine trucks, how could there be room for the more than forty, two-ton bulls?

White answered with a good natured chuckle—“the bulls get treated better than the humans!” The bulls are world-class athletes in their own right. Their performance is worth half of the score for the event as mentioned above. The bull is so important that in the championship round, the riders get to pick the bull they want to ride based on the number of points they’ve scored so far. First place gets the first pick of all the bulls at the event. There are entire livestock companies devoted to breeding and raising bulls that buck the hardest and deliver the most demanding rides. A top-class bull in PBR can be worth five hundred thousand dollars. Contrary to the claims of organizations such as PETA and several demonstrators outside the arena who decry bull riding as animal cruelty, the bulls are genetically predisposed to have a fiery disposition. The bulls are not harmed in any way to anger them or make them buck, and the spurs riders use are dull.

All the bulls that PBR uses are regional and under strict contracts. For every eight hours that the bulls are on the road, the bulls are guaranteed ten hours out in a pasture. For the Sacramento Invitational, the bulls would be from the west coast as the bulls featured in the Manchester Invitational would not make it to California in time. While there are concerns about the wellbeing of the animals used in PBR, rest assured that—when not in the spotlight—the bulls are treated with the utmost respect and care.