A BUNCH OF BULL
Bullfighter Gorham feels the sense of duty to put himself in harm’s way
Brennon Eldred rides White Omega successfully for eight seconds on Friday night in the opening session of the Ty Murray Invitational at Dream style Arena — the Pit. The popular bull-riding event continues today and concludes on Sunday.
From the time he was 5 years old, Seth “Shorty” Gorham had a dream of reaching the highest levels of professional bull riding.
But it didn’t involve saddling up and riding a bull. Instead, Gorham wanted to become the J.B. Mauney of bullfighters.
“Usually it goes the other way, and most of us (bullfighters) started out riding bulls,” Gorham said, who is in town this weekend for the 22nd Annual Ty Murray Invitational, the 11th stop on this year’s PBR Tour.
In the basement of Dreamstyle Arena – the Pit, Gorham was as calm as can be an hour before he stepped onto the dirt floor to perform one of the most dangerous jobs in sports.
After a rider is bucked off, or successfully conquers a bull, bullfighters go to work by stepping into the sight lines of a bull. Their objective is to distract the animal while the rider works to get out of harm’s way after hitting the dirt.
One would never know that Gorham, gregarious and affable, is fully aware that the next bull ride could be his last one, even though he’s not even riding.
Yet, fear doesn’t cross Gorham’s mind. Metaphorically speaking, he rode that bull a long time ago.
“For me, when I got to the age when I was able to fight bulls, I had already been studying (the sport) for 10 years,” said Gorham, 39 and a resident of Cotulla, Texas. “I knew where to go and what to do, it was just getting your body to do it. That fear element was in the way, but once you learned to control it, the rest of it came pretty easy.”
The sport has a well-earned reputation for danger — and injuries. Nearly every professional rider has a laundry list of them, and the bullfighters are no exception. Gorham has suffered countless broken bones and torn numerous ligaments. Injuries — often serious ones — aren’t an “if,” but a “when.”
Yet, Gorham feels it’s a duty to put himself in harm’s way to protect the professional riders, much like the mindset of the military, police officers and firefighters.
“I’ve had Navy SEALs tell me, ‘you’re crazy,” Gorham said. “I tell them, ‘I’m crazy, you’re crazy.’ They tell me, ‘you’re out there with a bull that’s trying to kill you. How do you do it?’ And I (ask) them, ‘How do you kick the door in when you know some guy’s back there wanting to kill you?’ It’s easy for me because you’re helping someone who’s in danger, and it’s easy for the military because they’re protecting the country.”
Gorham’s job is the bullfighter’s version of “serve and protect,” and he knows his career is finite. Perhaps he wasn’t thinking of transitioning into something else, but with the gentle nudging of his wife’s cousin, Gorham is well on his way to a “retirement business.”
This weekend, before intermission, freestyle bullfighters will square off oneon-one against bulls in what is called the “Beast Pit,” by the PBR.
Two bullfighters each night will engage a fearsome bull, and crowd approval will determine the winner. The bullfighters’ opponents? They are straight from Gorham and his relative’s stable.
Gorham knows it’s not a fair fight as his bulls have every advantage — except one.
“The one thing the bullfighters have that the bulls don’t have is the power of the mind,” Gorham said. “These guys are young, athletic, and super, freaking mentally tough.”
If Gorham seems deferential to the freestyle bullfighters, it’s because he has tried freestyle bullfighting himself.
“I never get nervous (working) as a bullfighter, but as soon as that anthem finishing playing (the first time I did freestyle), I started getting sick to my stomach,” he said. “I went back to the locker room, and I was with the two guys I was competing against. “I asked them, ‘Is this normal?’ And they said, ‘Welcome to the freestyle world.’”
FRIDAY’S RESULTS: Dakota Buttar of Kindersley, Saskatchewan, set the bar high with an 88.25 on the opening ride of the night, and Jess Lockwood of Volborg, Mont., matched that score to share the top spot in the first round of the three-day event. Sixteen of the 38 professional riders earned qualifying rides, including special invitee Cody Jesus, the reigning Navajo bull riding world champion. Jesus’ score of 86.25 was fifth overall.