Sullivan survives Day 1 of Leffew’s Bullriding School

Talkin about the quintessential stereotypical country family. The Leffew’s, for out right hospitality, kindness and sense of humour, would be hard to beat. They have embraced Sull and I and though we are not ‘from the land’ or been brought up around bulls and the hospitality has been overwhelming.

Gary Leffew is a legend in the U.S. , a former world champion bull rider, PRCA hall of famer, 8 time NFR qualifier, NFR average winner and past bull riding director of the PRCA.  There isn’t anything this guy doesn’t know about bulls, bullriders and bullriding. But the thing that intrigues me most about this man, is not only was he one of the most forward thinking bullriders of his time, not only studying the greats but video recording there rides, playing them back in slow motion and dissecting every recovery and back arch to the frame but he spent as much time understanding the psyche of bullriding. He is a firm believer in you are what you think and this must, no doubt, give Sullivan great comfort seeing he has neither the experience, the  physique or  the upbringing of the typical bullrider.

Gary and his two sons, Brett and Jud, have been challenged with the task to turning Sullivan into a bull rider. Day 1 involved lots of class time going thru the 7 basics of the perfect bullride posture; positions of the back, the head, the knees, the thighs, the spurs, the arms, the hands etc. How to react in the shoot and out of the gate . How to deal with a bull turning in and turning out. Barrels were used to imitate the bulls and styles of legends of the game were reviewed in slowmo. Once a spring rain had past Gary raked  the arena by tractor and the boys were chomping at the bit to get out there and test their newly acquired skills on the real mc Coy.

Gary’s son Brett  had explained in the lecture that they needed to break old habits and replace them with the new. No problems there from Sull’s perspective, no habits to break. Brett, who must be one of the best Bull riding coaches in the world, explained that they may go backwards before they see the improvement in their newly adjusted styles.

The boys looked excited but also frustration at not being able to get it instantly , was evident, but if it was that easy, everyone would be a legend like Gary and there is only a handful of those in the world.

Sull looked much better already than his first few rides in Aileron. Posture and body was sitting much straighter on the bull (Pooh Bear Gone Wild) and to date it was his longest ride before he hit the dirt and smacked into the fence with his head. Lucky he had that helmet on and he got up unscathed. His second ride, again the back is looking good and he’ll need to work on his arms next but this time he was dismounted from the back of the bull and landed on his back hard, with an almighty thump. I heard and felt it 200 metres away from where I was filming on the hill. Gary joked he’s left his mark in the mud, Sull’s Lake, which even the stand up comic and the rest of the boys had a good chuckle about. There will be a few saw bones tomorrow but they’re straight back into it at 8am and day 2. Wander how Sull’s body is holding up. He seems just as determined and gaining confidence.

All the best Toddy