BROOMFIELD — It is 5 p.m. on a Friday night at the Broomfield Event Center, and a collection of bulls are caged in the backstage area.
Except for an occasional snort, most are quiet and docile. But in just a couple of hours they all will be violently bucking and, in general, trying to stomp into the dirt the collection of Wrangler-clad men who will have the gall to try and ride them.
Despite the fact that any one of the bulls might soon trample him into the imported earth and add to his already extensive history of broken bones, Longmont’s Kody Lostroh speaks of them in loving terms.
“I definitely respect those animals. They’re awesome animals and I love them,” Lostroh said, prior to the “Kody Lostroh Invitational” at the BEC, part of the Enterprise Rent- a-Car Tour. “But they are more dangerous than a car. They’ll get you if you let them.”
For Lostroh, this weekend was a dream come true. Hosting a bull riding tournament in his name, near the town he grew up in, is something the 2005 Professional Bull Riders Inc. rookie of the year will remember forever.
“This is something I’ve been looking forward to for a while, a real special thing for me,” said Lostroh, 22. “When I was 7, my mom thought it would be fun for me to try and ride a steer at the county fair, and now here I am 15 years later.”
The Enterprise tour is considered the Triple-A of bull riding, and the cowboys milling around Lostroh backstage can only hope to have the kind of success he’s had so far. Lostroh has earned more than $1 million in prize money since joining the PBR in 2004, including $285,533 in the last two PBR World Finals in Las Vegas.
“The sport has really grown,” he said. “You can make a living at it.”
What makes a successful bull rider? Strong wrists, for one thing. But it’s much more than that, Lostroh says.
“It’s only eight seconds, so most people think you just have to hang on. But there’s a lot of balance, and countermoves we practice, and we’ve practiced them our whole lives,” Lostroh said. “You can never just ‘hang on,’ because the bull is going to out-power you and throw you off. It’s really just counteracting. You have a split-second to counteract the jump of a bull. It’s a give and take. It’s kind of like a dance; you have to get in motion with them.”
The bulls have been specially bred to buck anything on their backs. The ones used on the PBR Tour also shed any docility once they get in the chute and hear the loud arena music.
“These bulls right now, they’ve been around a long time,” Lostroh says, looking over at them. “They know they don’t have to do anything right now. But once they hear the music and hear the crowd, they know it’s time to go.”
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
