Archive for the ‘Rides and Carnival’ Category
Wild Bull or Carnival Ride: Our Bull Riders and Bull Fighters tell all
Rodeo is a big part in the Sydney Royal Easter Show, this year it kicked off with the Australia vs New Zealand international series, then came the best young riders in the Young Guns series and from Friday night (April 22), it’s state of origin rivalry between Queensland and NSW.
Bull riding action at the Sydney Royal Easter Show
Watching all this bull riding, bronc busting and steer wrestling got us to thinking, just how tough are these cowboys and girls?
So we wandered down to Schmdit Arena where the cowboys chill-out before an event. We got talking to some bull riders (the toughest of them all) and some bull fighters (the craziest of them all). Bull fighters are the blokes who jump in front of 900 kilograms of enraged bull if the beast turns on the rider after he hits the turf. They distract the bull, get chased by the bull, side-step the bull and work to keep the riders safe. They used to be called Rodeo Clowns and wore silly wigs, red noses and often hid in empty 44 gallon drums at country rodeos. These days they have re-positioned their profession. No more red noses, they now wear at least some protective gear and call themselves bull fighters.
We asked the bull riders and fighters about their injuries, and what scared them most; riding a beast, or taking on one of the carnival rides at the Show. This short video, Machine Vs. Beast, shows the guys being pretty laconic about their injuries, pretty laid back about the dangers of bull riding and bull distracting, but downright scaredy cats when it came to carnival rides.
You can see rodeo every night of the Show at 6:40pm through to April 27. What would you rather do? Ride a wild bull or the Zipper ?
