Don Kish and his dog, Sport, watch over Spittin' Image (facing camera) and the other bulls Kish brought in for this weekend's rodeo.
Photo by Bob Pennell
By DANI DODGE
CENTRAL POINT -- Woe to the cowboy who draws "Show me the money Skoal."
In his three years as a bucking bull, probably about 100 rides, the freckle-faced cross-breed has never been ridden the full eight seconds.
"He's got a good chance of being the bucking bull of the year," said Expo Park Manager Chris Borovansky."Having an animal like this is ... like having (Detroit Pistons forward) Grant Hill in town."
"Show me the money Skoal" is one of "perhaps the best string of bucking bulls ever seen in Central Point," Borovansky said.
The bull belongs to Don Kish of Red Bluff, Calif., who raises bulls just for rodeo. The bull is a descendent of Wolfman, which in 1991 was the only bull ever to score a perfect 100 points, a feat accomplished right here at the Expo.
Bull riding is one of a number of events at the Wild Rogue ProRodeo at the Expo grounds this weekend. The rodeo started Friday and includes shows at 7 tonight and at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
A cowboy will attempt to ride"Show me the money Skoal" tonight.
Kish said cowboys don't like to ride "Show me" because of the animal's fast spinning action, which has thrown every cowboy so far.
"He spins about three times faster than other bulls," Kish said. "They are scared to death of him."
Kish, 35, used to ride bulls himself, but when he realized he wasn't very good at it, he got into the business of providing bulls for other riders.
At first, Kish said, he bought bulls at auction, but found out he was buying other people's headaches: bulls that jumped fences or were too wild to be in the rodeo. So he started raising the animals himself on a 500-acre Red Bluff ranch "Don is a real wizard with bulls," Borovansky said, "... one of the first to breed bulls like racehorses."
Kish has 200 cows and 250 bulls in his herd. He leases the animals to John Growney, the rodeo stock contractor, who brings all the animals to the Wild Rogue ProRodeo.
And though it would seem that all bulls buck, it's really only a talented few that do, Kish said.
"There's way more bulls that don't buck than the ones that do. You can go through 100 before you find one that does," he said.
Because the bulls he raises are from bucking bull stock, though, many more of them are good for rodeo work than bulls out of the general population.
The best bulls are crosses of many different breeds, Kish said. His all have some Brahma in them, and then combinations of other breeds.
When they quit bucking, Kish stops putting them in rodeos, he said.
Mark Nichols -- a rodeo clown who will attempt to keep riders from getting hurt in the ring after their rides -- said he expects to see exciting bull riding this weekend.
"They are a lot faster than the bigger bulls," he said. "They are pretty magnificent animals."
