Calm Kleier seeks to tame bull again
PRESSURE is the last thing PBR Australia frontrunner Aaron Kleier is feeling.
The Clermont bullrider is more likely to order a pizza and pick up a six-pack on his way to the Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre this weekend.
Kleier is not concerned about series standings or his narrow 56-point lead over world-title contender Lachlan Richardson, or the fact he is shooting for a third-straight Australian title.
Instead the 22-year-old is coming to the PBR Australia Grand Final to “go to work” and “have some fun”.
“I just focus on each bull as it comes up, I am not worried about the points and series side of things,” he said.
“I just want to do my job and ride my bull. This is a big weekend, but I just treat it like any other weekend.
“The way I look at it, if you do your job on your bull then that’s it. The rest is up to the judges. I want to think about what is in my control. My key is to just have fun.”
Kleier feels at home on top of a bull. That is because he has been riding them since he was a kid on his parents’ central Queensland property.
Kleier’s father Fred has bucking bulls at Clermont and regularly supplies PBR
Australia events with stock. The young rider is an integral part of the business, regularly looking after the bulls and doing farm work through the week.
It is part and parcel of his success in the rodeo ring.
He has a connection with the animals on more than just a rider and mount level, and with his sheer volume of rides means he has an understanding for what the bull will do.
“That is one thing that has helped me, getting on so many bulls when I was younger, which helped me figure out my style,” he said.
“I think you have more of an understanding of the way they work and the way they are – you are more calm when you are around them. If you are stirred up around an animal, it tends to make them really stirred up. You have got to be chilled.”
But that does not mean he wants the bull to be chilled under him. Kleier wants to be on the fiercest of animals to rack up a big score.
He comes into the grand final in incredible form, after putting in a winning performance in Airlie Beach last weekend. But what mattered more was the bull he did it on.
Reigning PBR Australia Bull of the Year, POA Fully Locked and Loaded, has been a thorn in the side of Kleier.
Three times he had been on it, three times he had been bucked off.
He wasn’t the only one; the bull out of the Dittman Bucking Bulls yard has a buck-off percentage of 85 per cent and an average buck-off time of 3.13 seconds.
But Kleier conquered his demons at Airlie Beach, holding on the distance to record an unbeatable combined ride score of 174.5 points.
“The feeling you have when you ride eight seconds; it is very hard to describe that feeling,” he said. “It makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up.
“It does feel like a lot longer than eight seconds when you are on the ride.”