Rodeo Insider: Dublin man trainer of top-notch bulls
Autor: BARRETOS RÓDEO INTERNACIONAL | Publicado: 2011-11-02T02:09:00-07:00


BY BRETT HOFFMAN
Special to the Star-Telegram
LAS VEGAS -- During the final round of the Professional Bull Riders World Finals on Sunday afternoon at the Thomas & Mack Center, a bovine named Bushwacker burst from the chutes and clinched the association's 2011 World Champion Bull title.
Bushwhacker won because he's an incredible 5-year-old animal who makes high, rearing, long jumps, and then spins with great centrifugal force.
During the past weekend, Bushwacker generated great press for his owners, Richard Oliveira and Julio Moreno, when he clinched the world title during an NBC telecast.
But the man who works behind the scenes to prepare Bushwacker, and other high-profile bulls to leave the chutes, is Kent Cox of Dublin. He's the manager of Bushwacker. He's also the manager and part owner of Back Bender, a 4-year-old bovine who earned a $250,000 prize on Saturday night at the PBR World Finals.
Back Bender won the American Bucking Bull Classic Finals, which features the top 3- and 4-year old bulls who have earned the right to perform on the PBR's Built Ford Tough Series, the association's top-tier tour.
In both the World Champion Bull title race, and the ABBI Classic, bulls were judged on how difficult they were to stay on as they faced PBR World Finals contestants.
For example, Bushwacker clinched the World Champion Bull title after throwing off 2009 PBR World Finals average winner J.B. Mauney during the final round of the PBR World Finals. Bushwacker has a record of 24-1 against the cowboys on the Ford Series over the past three years. The dark, red-horned bull is 6-0 against Mauney.
Cox tends to Bushwacker and Back Bender on a daily basis, making sure they are well cared for at his 30-acre Dublin ranch. He also makes sure they are prepared to face the cowboys at PBR tour stops.
"It takes a lot of hard work and blood, sweat and tears," Cox said. "I spend almost every waking moment with those bulls, either feeding them, exercising them or running them through the chutes to get them chute broke. It's a full-time job when you raise bulls and go through a lot of young bulls to find that next superstar."
Cox, a former prize-winning bull rider, said he began learning how to manage bucking bulls in the late 1980s when he would purchase bovines at cattle sales in order to practice riding bulls. He quickly learned that there was money in finding a bull that would become a star bucker.

As bull riding has become a popular stand-alone sport over the past two decades, the demand for discovering and managing bucking bulls increased. It's a niche that Cox is passionate about pursuing. But in order to succeed, Cox said one must have great organizational skills.
"I really think it's management," Cox said. "It's feeding those bulls the same time and the same thing every day, it's putting those bulls on a strict routine both nutritionally and exercise. It's not something that you can really teach somebody. It's kind of an instinct, almost. You have to know your cattle. You have to be able to see when something's off and try to catch your problems before they really turn into problems."