Dances with bulls: Behind the chute at Cowtown Rodeo [photos]
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A bull has about six moves and the challenge to riding is reacting to the succession of moves said veteran rider Troy Alexander. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
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Fellow bull rider Jason Power offers some advice to Mike "Freckles" Clelan before he mounts the bull. Riders say the real competition is the bull, rather than the other riders. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
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A rider and bull wait for the chute door to open. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
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A bull kicks and throws a cowboy onto the sand at the Cowtown Rodeo. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
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Cowboys look onto the arena from behind the scenes at the Cowtown Rodeo. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
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Tyler Simas, 10, watches the bull riding event. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
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Scott Sellers prepares for his "dance."(Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
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Bareback rider Jim Elchak helps bull rider Nat Brenize tape his gloves. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
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Troy Alexander waves to a fan before the start of the Cowtown Rodeo on a Saturday night in Pilesgrove, New Jersey. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
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Troy Alexander hangs on during the bull riding competition at the Cowtown Rodeo. (Lindsay Lazarski/ WHYY)
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Junior bull rider, John Headley, 10, said he likes to say a prayer before he gets on a bull. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
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Clay Harp and Parker Ship show each other fresh bumps and scraps from the junior bull riding competition. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
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John Headley, 10, with his father, keeps an ice pack on his leg after the junior bull riding competition. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
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Bulls are corralled in a pen before the start of the Cowtown rodeo Saturday night. (Lindsay Lazarski/WHYY)
During the week, Troy Alexander develops counter bio-terrorism devices to test for anthrax, small pox and other biological weapons. On the weekends, the scientist travels two hours from his Maryland home to Pilesgrove, N.J., where he attempts the impossible — an eight-second “dance” with a 1,600-pound bull.
For Alexander, bull riding is not about competing with the other dozen or so cowboys who show up every Saturday night at the Cowtown Rodeo; it is about staying step for step with the bull, reacting, and counter-reacting to its every move.
“Once you leave the chute with the animal, it is all up to you, there is no reprieve,” Alexander said. “At some point, we are going to get on the same page and we’re going to dance.”
The “dance,” as cowboys refer to it, demands complete commitment and concentration. One false move or misread roll results in being hurled onto the dirt floor of the arena.
“Things can go bad in a heartbeat,” admits Alexander. “We’ve seen things happen — guys get stepped on, broken jaws, broken legs, backs, you name it. You quickly understand where priorities lie when you are in this business.”
As a veteran of the professional rodeo circuit, Alexander began his career as a cowboy 23 years ago during his freshman year of college at Louisiana State University. He remembers growing up watching his father compete in segregated rodeos throughout the South, so becoming a cowboy seemed like a natural fit.
One criticism he often hears as a bull rider has been about the mistreatment and abuse of animals in the rodeo. But after traveling to 43 states, Alexander said he’s never witnessed the mistreatment of animals in a professional arena.
“To the contrary, I’ve seen people go to great lengths to care for the animals,” added Alexander.
Despite the criticism and risk of the rodeo, Alexander said he is a frontiersman, willing to cross the plank of the chute and onto the bull for one more “dance.”
The Cowtown Rodeo runs through Saturday, September 28.
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