Photos by Ellen Morris Bishop
LEFT: Scarlet Lady is an NFR bareback bronc who unseats her riders, but is kind and gentle when not at work. RIGHT: Not many bull
riders last the entire eight seconds on Whose Bad News.
anyone who can stick on him for eight
very long seconds a great score? Brid-
well has just the ticket: Whose Bad
News. This little 1500 pound white
and black bovine bombshell is seldom
ridden for a full eight-second ticket.
“Anyone who can get him ridden will
score 85 to 90 points,” Bridwell said.
“He’s a great NFR bull.”
The CJD board doesn’t just allow
any old company to bring livestock to
the rodeo. Bridwell is one of the top
stock contractors in the United States
with their horses and bulls permeating
the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo
(AKA: NFR or now, starting in 2019,
WNFR) lineup. The Red Bluff, Cali-
fornia stock contractor bought out the
previous stock contractors, Growney
Brothers, and now are the sole stock
suppliers for CJD.
Bridwell said the company usually
brings about 50 head of horses to CJD,
the same horses you’ll also see in the
Tuesday, July 23 bucking horse stam-
pede through Main Street in Joseph
that kicks off the rodeo.The logis-
tics to bring the livestock to Joseph is
impressive: In addition to 50 premier
bucking horses, 20-30 bulls, about 50
calves and 75-100 head of steers will
be arriving in Joseph’s Harley Tucker
Arena livestock facility a day or two
before the rodeo.
All these animals are athletes.
And like any athlete prepping for a
big event, they will all be well-rested
and ready to perform. Prior to Chief
Joseph Days, they’ll all be competing
at the big Salinas, California rodeo,
and then at the St. Paul rodeo east
of Portland. “From there, we’ll take
them up to Hermiston, where they’ll
have a week of rest before we head for
Joseph,” Tim Bridwell said. “The key
is that like any athlete, they’ve gotta be
fresh to give their best performance.”
Good bucking horses and high
performing bulls don’t happen by
accident. Bridwell has an extensive
breeding program that produces their
top-quality livestock. Through the
years, stereotypes of livestock, for
example smaller horses for the bare-
back event and larger horses for sad-
dle bronc, have vanished. Today,
horses are assigned to events accord-
ing to their bucking style and talents,
Haley Bridwell noted.
She added that bull stock contrac-
tors started to breed for bucking ability
before the horse world took it up.”At
this stage of the game, it’s much eas-
ier to find good bucking bulls than
good bucking horses,” Bridwell said.
But regardless of whether you are
looking at bulls or broncs, you’ll see
some of the best athletic performances
in rodeo at Chief Joseph Days. And
it’s not just the riders. It’s also the star
four-footed performers who make the
show go on.
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