Howdy, pardner!
Here’s a lot of bull

Kids Stuff
By William Feldman

Welcome to Kids Stuff. Today’s column includes an interview with Clovis Crane, jersey #56, who is a true tough cowboy from Lebanon, Pa. Twelve rodeo experts competed for the title of "Toughest Cowboy" at the Wachovia Spectrum in January.
Clovis was born Dec. 13, 1979, in Danville, Ind. He attended Purdue University where he received a degree in education. This affords him to teach history, health and physical education. His influences as he grew up were Wayne Lucas when he was younger, and Todd Plepcher when he was a little older, because of their important roles in the thoroughbred business.
Clovis became interested in rodeo from his father, who was a rodeo cowboy.
"When I was young I was too small to rodeo. I was involved in wrestling," Clovis said. "I was a professional jockey for two years and actually rode at Philadelphia Park and at some of the surrounding race tracks in Delaware, Penn National, Aqueduct and at the Meadowlands."
After he outgrew his era as a jockey, he went to wrestle at Purdue University.
"After I was finished wrestling at Purdue, I felt a void for competition," he explained. "With my background being very physical and competitive, rodeo was a good fit for me. It came pretty natural to step into the rodeo world and start competing."
I was curious about how the riders protect themselves from injury.
"You really don’t protect yourself from injury," he said, "you do everything to ride as well as you can and not get knocked off. I run three to five days a week and a daily abdominal workout."
Injury tally so far: Clovis has broken his back, knuckles in his hands, foot, ankle and nose several times.
When I asked Clovis how he feels about the dangers and risk of injury, he compared it to the everyday risk of getting in a car accident.
"Driving a car is something you need to do. Rodeo is something I want to do. There are risks with that, just like there are risks driving down the street," he said.
Hey, did you ever think the bull had something to say about this sport? I thought it was only fair to ask him a few questions. But to tell you the truth, he conversed with Clovis before answering.
According to the bull, the rodeo itself has been around hundreds of years, with cowboys in the old West wanting to compete against one another to see who is the best cowboy and to see who can ride a bucking horse the best.
Rodeo has been pretty much the same in the U.S. over the last 75 years and it has been extremely popular.
"My parents never told me it was going to develop extra popularity with bull riding," the bull said.
The toughest cowboy is the new evolution in rodeo and has brought rodeo to a new level.
"It happened in the last two years that the guys in the toughest cowboy came up with the idea of head-to-head competition in three events, which is really rare for competing against cowboys," Clovis said. "This is because they usually compete in just one event. Quite frankly we are tougher than the average cowboy."
Now, Jon Bon Jovi might add, I’m a cowboy. I got the night on my side. And I am wanted, wanted, dead or alive.
The fan base for this sport is huge. Fans want to see something exciting. You will be surprised, too, when I tell you that it is most popular in Los Angeles and New York City. Clovis believes this is because the people in those cities are looking for excitement from something that they can’t normally see from where they are from.
The bull interrupted the interview to say there are some guys whose only job is to raise bulls, and they contract out with the rodeo.
"Most of us bulls are at least two years old," said the bull.
Why do the bulls seem to buck so much?
"Like a thoroughbred racehorse, those horses and bulls are bred to do what they do. They are bred to buck," Clovis said.
The bull quickly added his two cents: "You hear a lot of rumors about things being done to the bulls to make them buck, and these are the most ignorant statements."
These bulls are worth thousands of dollars and some recently went for as much as $500,000. The average bull in the rodeo is worth $4,000 to $5,000. The bull mentioned again, "Why in the world would anyone do anything to us that might hurt us? That is a big fallacy."
The bulls have an area called the flank, which is near the hip joint. There is a flap of skin there, where if you touch it, it tickles them. You might say the buck starts here. If you put a piece of cotton cloth in that area and pull it, it aggravates them. The bulls will buck on their own, but they will buck higher and harder with that cloth because it irritates them.
"It absolutely does not hurt them," Clovis insisted. "There is no way I, or most of the cowboys and people, would be involved in rodeo if the animals were hurt."
I must agree on this. I had a backstage tour and saw a beautiful coat warmer on one of the bulls. You read this right. The bulls do not like the cold weather up here in the North; they are used to their Texas warm climate. SPOILED!
Interestingly, Clovis explained that the bulls don’t like to be alone, and when they are alone they are fairly dangerous. They want to get away from you. Instead of running from you when they are alone, they will run toward you so they can hurt you before you can hurt them.
It is like a ‘fight or fright’ response. They have a fight response when they are scared. When they are in a herd they appear more docile because they are not scared.
I was alone with the bull with the coat warmer. I was a little — OK, a lot — nervous, but then I realized afterward he was not interested in me.
All types of riding are difficult, Clovis said, adding, "Bareback riding is the most grueling on the body. Bronc riding is the most technical. There is a lot more going on, so it is hard to do everything right. Then bull riding, if everything goes right, is easy, but if something goes wrong it is the most dangerous sport in the world, because the bull can come and hurt you."
Clovis told me it doesn’t take long to learn how to ride. What takes long is learning how to become good at it, which varies for each person. He has been working on it for three years.
Was he scared the first time he rode a bull?
"When you bull ride, it is not a matter of if they will hurt but rather when they will hurt you and how badly," Clovis explained. "If you are not scared when you get on a bull, there is something wrong with you and you are going to get hurt. There is a certain amount of fear every time you get on a bull, but you have to be able to control it. Hopefully, you will do everything right and they will not hurt you."
I guess I asked a funny question about obtaining disability and life insurance rates for bull rodeo riders:
"Are you kidding?" Clovis asked me. I gathered from that response that the riders should not even bother applying for disability and life insurance.
Hundreds of people are involved in putting these events together. There are about 12 to 15 bulls for each "toughest cowboy" event. They usually need 12 but they have a few extra in case one of the bulls is having a "bad day."
A good example: The day I attended the show, a horse just did not want to buck, even though the riders and show technicians gave it ample opportunity.
Clovis lives in Lebanon, Pa., where his business of training racehorses is located. He rodeos as a hobby and as an alternate source of income.
Lebanon, which is near Hershey, Pa., is centrally located to several of the world’s best racetracks, Clovis said. In five years, he hopes "My rodeo career will be going really well, I will have had a lot of fun with it, my thoroughbred business will be thriving and I will be on the trail to win the Kentucky Derby."
As for his legacy, Clovis hopes people think he was a hard-working guy, had a lot of fun, treated everybody fairly and all in all was a good guy.
P.S., Clovis and his 2,000-pound bull moseyed on down to the Philadelphia Stock Exchange hoping to bring on a bull market, lol. However, it did not help, as stocks did not rebound all the way. But Clovis told me he thought it was real cool ringing the opening bell.
I would recommend this unique event of rodeo to anyone. I truly had the best time. ••
Columnist William Feldman can be contacted by e-mail at wmkidscolumn@aol.com