A Bull Rider's Prayer

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The Bull Rider's Prayer

July 5, 2008. This was my first rodeo (I like the flip on the idiom). I captured this bull rider after his sudden fall from grace. To me it depicted the entire Rodeo Culture. The cowboy is the symbolic icon of the American West. Rodeos span our nation and I have learned over the years, (after “this ain’t my first rodeo”) it is much, much more than Bronc and Bull Riding. It is a way a life. It is family, God and hard work that molds these kids to participate, in my humble opinion, in the most dangerous sport in modern history. This was my first published piece as it donned the cover of the February 2009 cover of Your Competitor News, which was the Northwest’s only rodeo magazine.

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