Young Bulls’ Athleticism Set to Showcase at Inaugural Conroe Bull Mania

CONROE, Texas - Sept. 22, 2014 - PRLog -- Championshiop Bull Riding (CBR) will reveal future super star athletes as The Championship Futurity League gets set to showcase on Saturday morning, October 4th, at the Inaugural Conroe Bull Mania, but these athletes will be the four legged kind and the event which starts at 9:00 am on Saturday is FREE and open to the public at the Lonestar Expo Center Arena.

The Championship Futurity Tour (CFT), like the CBR Million Dollar Bull Team Challenge, gives bucking bull owners the opportunity to put together a team of bulls for competition. The four-stop tour culminates at the CFT World Finals being held for the first time in Conroe, Texas with 30 teams hoping to get a share of the $135,000 payout. Altogether, 30 teams of three youngsters will buck in the Futurity, worth a guaranteed $50,000 to the first place winner.

A Futurity, as it's called within the industry, is a competition where two year old bulls compete against each other. These bulls buck for five seconds with a 25 pound dummy on their back that is remotely released after the five seconds.  Each bull is judged in five categories: Buck, Kick, Spin, Intensity, & Degree of Difficulty. Each team consists of three two-year-old bulls that will buck with an electronic riding dummy that automatically releases off of the bull after five seconds, giving the animal equal opportunity to perform.

Four judges evaluate the bulls, each scoring them 1-25 for a total possible score of 100. Then the team’s scores are added together with the highest total score garnering the biggest check. The first CBR Bull Games Futurity was held in Lufkin, Texas on February 25, 2012 where 20 teams of 2 year old bulls competed.  Exclusive Genetics won the $20,000 first place check.

Last year’s world championship was won by Carpenter Brothers (Hempstead, Texas) and Hudgins (Cypress, Texas) who used the same three bulls at every competition. Those bulls, 107 – Jailhouse Socks, 136 – Hurricane Harry, and 138 – Cracker Jack, had a total combined score of 262.25 to win the first 2013 CFT World Championship title and the $50,000 check that goes with it.

This year’s team owners have been orchestrating their team strategy and scouring the country to find the best of the breed to bring to Conroe. Will it be the same bulls we saw compete earlier this year that have continue to mature as athletes, or will it be a newbie that has been sitting at home eating grain and alfalfa, growing and getting stronger, just waiting his turn to impress the four judge panel for the first time?

Here is a rundown of the leading contenders from the first four qualifying stops of the 2014 season.

Paul Daniels Flyin D Bucking Bulls, Chico, Texas won the first CFT stop earlier this year in Lufkin, clearing   the field by a large margin of 6.5 points over the second place team of Snakebitten Bucking Bulls. Daniels bull 207 shared the high marked bull score of 88.75 with Carpenter and Hudgins bull 248, a gray bull sired by Cowtown Gangster.

The second event of the season was with the lights of Las Vegas bright behind the bucking chutes. Breeders brought their best to the two-year-old bull team division Championship Futurity Tour (CFT) to the South Point Hotel and Casino on April 19^th.  Twenty teams of three bulls each competed for the $37,000 in prize money with the top honors going to Andrus and Barker whose team had a score of 259.25.  The Jaynes Gang & Friends, Orchard, Texas, came in second posting a 258.50 aggregate score, just .75 behind Andrus and Barker. Heather Burleson had the two top scoring bull of the competition. Burleson’s Houdini Martini led the field with an 89.25 followed by teammate Case Closed with an 88.75.

The Breeder Bull Games division of the CFT hosted the second two stops of the CFT holding both events at the Lonnie Austin Arena in Myrtle Springs, Texas. A total of $37,000 in prize money was awarded in Myrtle Springs, Texas at the third stop of the tour with the grand prize going to the team owned by Barrett/Walgrenn/Keel of Ardmore, Oklahoma with a total team score of 265.50. Leading the Oklahoma based team with the highest score of the day was #279 Bottoms Up with a combined four judge score of 91 points. Bottoms Up, raised and flanked by Mitch Terrell, Ardmore, Okla., has already banked over $100,000 this year from competitive aged events earnings.


Stop number four and the last chance to qualify for Conroe was held at the final CFT event on July 12, and was won by JQH Bucking Bulls of Amarillo, Texas.  Bucking in the last position on the draw sheet, Skip and Elaine Jones’ bucked two of the same calves from the previous CFT competition, but accredited their win to making some key adjustments.

“It is very hard to put together a team of three consistent two year olds, claimed Jones. We re-tooled our team by partnering on a new bull, practicing with 217 until his trip became regular, and changing the delivery side for 201, our third bull,” said Jones.

Leading the Amarillo, Texas based team to their first futurity win was the high marked bull of the May 24th competition, bull #279 Bottoms Up, with a total score of 88.75. Bottoms Up.  Bucking next was J201, a son of Page’s Down Time and out of a cow that is a full sister to Page’s Shepard Hills Tested. J201 was appropriately named, raised and trained (in that order) by JQH. “We bought his mother and we were on the way home and pulled over at a McDonald’s near Wheeler, Texas. Elaine went to check on the newly acquired cow and called me to the back of the rig,” said Jones while on the way home from his first CBR Futurity win.  With the feet of the calf already showing, Jones called a local vet emergency service not a moment too soon. The veterinarian arrived just in time to deliver the calf in the trailer, hence the name Trailer Trash. Bringing up the rear was Johnson 217, a great calf belonging to Mike Johnson, one of JQH’s partners and mentors in the bull business. The highest bull score of the day was #25 Lumpy, owned by John Donahoe of DAM Cattle Company, with a combined four judge score of 89.25 points.

Editor’s Notes: 2014 marks the 11 year anniversary of organized two year old futurity competitions being held within the bucking bull industry. In that time frame over $3 million in prize money each year is paid out to the stock contractors who are raising the future stars of the bucking bull and rodeo business.

For more information contact Leigh Ann Schroeder at leighann@theshortround.com or call 940.902.1112 or cbrbull.com.