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'WALK THIS WAY' - A TALE OF A BULL As Told To Susan Kanode My name is 'Walk This Way' And I AM a bull with 'Baditude' PBR photo by Andy Watson Walk This Way - Chapter 2, Volume 2
Throughout my career as a bucking bull, I’ve learned a lot of things. One of those things and perhaps the most important is that change will happen. Sometimes we don’t have a lot of choices in what happens in our lives, but we do have a choice in how we handle it. With that said, I’m having changes of my own and while I am still going to buck and it is in my heart to throw off a cowboy or get him to a 90-point ride, I’m enjoying the changes that are happening right now. This month of February saw me at home on the ranch. I used to feel like every time I got to come home, it was a vacation from the road. Now that I’ve been home for a while, the road is going to feel like a vacation. If you’ve never been to Bad Company Rodeo’s ranch, you ought to make the trip and you would know exactly what I mean. The ranch is located between Sonora and Del Rio, Texas. The closest town is Loma Alta, and believe me, it is just a spot on the road. I know because if I’m going from the farm in Del Rio to the ranch, that spot is where we slow down, get off the pavement and start off on the never ending dirt roads. It’s about then that I usually lay down in the trailer and try to stay out of the dust. I give it about 15 minutes before I perk up and start looking for the girls. After Odessa in January, we came to the ranch from the Sonora side where there are even more dirt roads. I waited about a half hour before I started looking for girls. After we went through the final gate it wasn’t long until I spotted them. Boy did they have a surprise for me. They weren’t alone! There were some calves with them and I knew that things were going to change on the home front. Mack (Altizer) turned me out in a pasture and I took off at a nice little trot, looking for the girls. I’m pretty sure that my time spent with them last year was productive, because some of those calves look a lot like me. Well I have now learned how a female’s attitude changes once she becomes a mother, and that’s taken some getting used to. I am no longer the center of their attention. They are far more concerned about being a mother than being a girlfriend. Just one more change I had to accept. So the girls are paying attention to their calves, or their bellys are big, they are uncomfortable and the last thing they want to do is talk to me! What’s a bull to do? Let me tell you I needed to work on my Baditude. As I got to know the calves, my attitude changed too and rather than being jealous of the attention they were getting from their mom’s, I developed a little parental concern of my own. I’ve now taken them under my wing as well and while I can’t say I’m affectionate, I’m definitely protective of the little buggers. There’s a lot out here that can get to these babies, coyotes, eagles bigger than you’ve ever seen, and of course this rocky, hilly country offers prime hideouts for mountain lions. I’m taking my responsibilities seriously and am now spending time gathering up the girls and the babies and keeping them in a herd. There is definitely safety in numbers.
When I’m on the road, the thing that I hear the most said about me is, “that bull is so smart.” Well whether you are trying to get a cowboy off your back or protect your family, a little bit of common sense never hurt anybody. Bad Company Rodeo has some great looking cows and they are raising fine babies. I’ve never been prejudiced—I like all colors of cows and heifers --- but I’m learning more about these girls every day. Most of them have never been off the ranch, so they love hearing about the life of a bucking bull and have a better understanding about the calves they are raising. A lot of them are Roach and Berger bred. They go back to some of my bucking bull heroes that were part of Bad Company’s original “Dirty Dozen”, Superstition, Cadillac, Wild Thing and La Grange sired the Roach cows. The Berger cows go back to Tequila and Hammertime. They each have their own personality and some are easier to be around than others. One lesson I learned really quickly was to get out of their way when the feed truck shows up. It must be that eating for two thing. I learned the hard way that nothing stands between these girls and their range cubes. I have to throw my weight around just to get my share and one thing about Bad Company, they are always generous with their feed I still have a special place in my heart for Ivana, the heifer I met here last year. She’s fat, sassy and getting ready to drop a calf. I can’t wait to see what that baby looks like, hopefully just like its mother. There have been a lot of bulls fighting for her affection. It doesn’t really matter who she ended up with, I know eventually she’ll be all mine. All I have to do is close my eyes and remember the first time she came up to the fence and batted her eyelashes at me. When she introduced herself as Ivana Buck, I was dumbstruck. Of course she proceeded to show me that heifers really could buck and once again I had to adjust my thinking. Someday she will have a little dun calf with lots of bone that looks like me. The sentimental part of me thinks about it all the time. We could call him Buck This Way, or if it was a heifer, maybe her name could be Ivana Walk. It’s starting to get a little warmer around here and we are seeing green grass springing up. Green grass means three things here at the Rodeo Ranch, more new calves, fresh feed and maybe most importantly, it’s getting close to time for the George Paul Memorial Bull Riding. I know it’s still a couple of months away, but I always look forward to it. It’s the wildest bull riding party on the Rio Grande, so mark your calendars for May 3 & 4. My name is Walk This Way and I am still a bull with BADITUDE.
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