Cowgirls Don't Cry

CHAPTER TWELVE - JESSE

If there was one place I wouldn't mind being all day, every day, it'd be the rodeo grounds. Not one specific location, just in general, because the atmosphere of most rodeos is more or less the same; the crowds of farmers, cowboys, cowgirls and farming families, the contented chatter laced with our trademark Southern drawl, the clang of livestock in metal panelling, running up and down the chutes and crush system, the crackling boom of the MC keeping a running commentary on whatever was happening in the arena. It was a sense of thrill and community like no other, and I loved it.

The best and worst part of any ride was the tense wait in the chute before the gate opened, just strapped tight to the bull, anchored by a sticky rope and whatever muscle and balance you had. Looking around now, about to straddle my first ever born-and-bred bucking bull, I let the noise of the arena fill my head. Older cowboys and officials milled around me, checking gates and hollering orders amid the clang of the chutes and the hum of the crowd.

I was sixteenth in the ride order, just after Ash, at fifteen, who was currently preparing in the chute beside me. He looked at ease with his surroundings, one foot either side of the chute, straddling the junior bull beneath him as he worked his ropes into order.

Looking back to my own bull, I felt a rush of anticipation. Luke and Alex had already ridden earlier in the day, with Alex almost making the buzzer at 7.6 seconds, before being caught off-balance in the final second, and Luke making the time to a mid-range score of around fifty-five. That was a pretty good run, considering the bulls couldn't make a real good score at this level, and given that we'd had no experience on anything but steers prior to today.

A couple of other guys I recognised rode before me as well, but Kacey, Cash and Lane Delta, one of my biggest rivals, were yet to go out. In the chute beside me, Ash settled in on his bull, one hand wound tight in the rope and the other held above his shoulder. He gave the word, a short nod to the surrounding officials, and the gate swung open with a creak.

The flashing digital clock up one end of the arena began the count to eight seconds, as the MC called the ride excitedly, and Ash's bull leapt out of the chute. He was a wound-up Speckle Park bull, younger and more lightweight, but he bucked and twisted nonetheless, while Ash held his grip tight and worked to keep his seat.

Before I knew it, the eight-second buzzer had sounded and the bull was flanked by pick-up riders, enabling Ash to finally release his rope and leap to the ground. As the bull was herded out by the pick-up riders, Ash's score appeared on the digital board beside the stopwatch, his name added in second place with sixty-seven points. The crowd whistled and cheered, as I switched my focus from the arena back to my own bull.

Straddling the broad grey back beneath me, I slipped down into place between my rope and the flank strap, and felt the bull tense up at the weight, tossing his head and bumping against the steel rails all around us. The buzz of the crowd and the hollers of the cowboys above me faded a little, as I settled onto the bull's back and drew the rope tight, wrapping it a few times around my gloved right hand. My bull bucked a little beneath me, rattling the chute and dislodging my grip. One of the chute assistants leaning over to help each bull-rider prepare for their ride tightened his grip on my shoulder as the bull jerked back in its confinements. As I re-wrapped the rope around my glove, pulling it tight under the sticky rosin rubbed on it for better grip, I pulled all my focus back onto the bull.

"In just a minute, folks, we'll have fifteen-year-old Jesse Chandler out here for his first time competing on the under-twenty's circuit, as well as his first out on a bucking bull," the MC's drawl rang out over the crowded bleachers as I prepared for my ride.

Technically I was only fourteen, but since I'd be fifteen in a month, they'd decided to let me under the radar in order to start the season, so I had to be introduced as fifteen for legalities, regardless of what my birth certificate said.