The Bull Rider

1981 © by Joe Young -- All Rights Reserved

You ain't never rode a Brahma bull, but you're sure not gonna tell
cause, boy! you look plumb salty with your bull rope and your bell.
A fuzz face kid says, "Can I help you?" as you're tuckin' in your shirt.
"No, you better stand back, sonny, cause you're liable to get hurt."
You get your rope upon the bull and you're sittin' in the middle.
The kid says, "That bull's high headed. You better sit back just a little."
You say, "Now listen here, sonny. I sure don't want you harmed...
but if you don't get on outta here I'm gonna break your knittin' arm.
Well, you nod your head you're ready. "Get that kid back outta the way!
"And let him watch a real bull rider make a ride that's gonna pay."
The first jump on old number eleven, and you almost lose an eye.
You think, that fuzz face kid is right. This bull's head is a trifle high.
His horns look like twin razors as he shakes them in your face
and you think you're one bull rider that's gonna make a stretcher case.
You feel yourself a slippin', and you know you're comin' down;
and you wonder if the ambulance has made it back from town.
Then you're down on hands and knees and you start to scratchin' sand.
It's fifty yards back to those chutes; and you don't have time to stand.
You feel that bull right on you, and boy, you really start to crawl
until at last you reach a haven, on a good ole concrete wall.
You see everyone a laughin', holdin' sides like they were broke,
and you say, "Sonny, what's the matter? I'd like in on this here joke."
He says, "When you fell off that bossy, it just went the other way.
"And while you were tearin' up the arena, it was in the catch pen, eatin' hay."
Then they announce the next bull rider and you feel sick at what you've done...
cause this kid you been rawhidin' is "the World's Bull Riding Champion."

Joe Young performed as a featured poet at the Cowboy Poetry Gathering held in Elko Nevada in 1990, 1991, and 1996. He has shared the stage in Idaho, Oregon and Nevada with amateur and professional alike, including yours truly and much more important folk, like Baxter Black (formerly of Idaho) who is one of the most prolific and well known cowboy poets of our time.

Best known on the rodeo circuit for a crowd pleasing act with his trained Thoroughbred-Arabian horse, Star Dust, Joe has retired from rodeo. He worked several years as a farrier and served more than ten years as secretary for the International Union of Journeyman Horseshoer's of The United States and Canada.

He and wife JoAnne reside in southern Idaho. Joe has spent the past few summers as a lookout for the U.S. Forest Service.

Update:
Our condolences go to our good friend Joe Young, who lost his lovely wife JoAnne to cancer on March 27, 2000. She will be sorely missed.

Joe Young, age 86, died Thursday, Feb. 28, 2008, at a Boise hospital.

Joseph Alva Young (1921-2008)

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