Dennis Clark
Special to the Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
Kellie Frost: They say it's not when you get hurt bull ridin', it's how bad.
Lane Frost: Naa, the bulls don't want nuthin' to do with ya. They just wanna buck you off and get on with there business. A'sides... people'll hurt you a lot sooner.
— Excerpt from the movie “8 Seconds “(1994).
When one pictures the most likely place to experience a real, live, rootin’-tootin’ rodeo, first thoughts would likely be Texas or Oklahoma. Maybe Wyoming or Montana.
The likelihood of choosing Indiana would probably be far down your list of possibilities.
Did you know that there is an Indiana High School Rodeo Association?
Did you know we have a bonafide IHSRA bull rider right here in our own backyard, in nearby Sullivan County?
Well, believe it.
Trent Rinard, a Sullivan High School graduate in 2010, was just one of just four bull riders in the IHSRA earning the right to compete in the National High School Finals Rodeo in Gillette, Wyo., from July 18-24.
The NHSFR featured over 1,500 competitors from every state in the United States, even coming from as far away as Australia. “The largest rodeo in the world,” Rinard said.
His Indiana contingent included individuals with talents in bareback, breakaway roping, steer wrestling, goat tying, pole bending, calf roping, barrel racing and team roping. Then there is Rinard’s specialty, bull riding.
Why bull riding?
“Bull riding is the most exciting event in rodeo,” Rinard said during his loooooong trek — over 1,200 miles — to Wyoming. “Imagine the biggest, baddest rollercoaster and take it times 10. Eight seconds on a bull … that is an eternity. Quite an adrenaline rush.”
Rinard lives in rural Sullivan County. His mailing address is Carlisle, but his family’s farm is located closer geographically to New Lebanon. “About a 15-minute ride to school,” he said.
Rinard has been around horses all his life, equally adept at breaking horses and farriering. For non-rural people like this reporter, farriers specialize in equine hoof care, which includes shoeing a horse.
So how did the love affair with bull riding come about?
“I’ve always wanted to run bulls since I was little,” Rinard admitted. “I went to the Lyle Sankey Rodeo School in Van Wert, Ohio. He put me on bulls and I’ve wanted to keep on with it ever since.”
More recently, Rinard enrolled in the Gary Leffew Bull Riding School in Brown City, Mich. Leffew is a former bull riding national champion.
“That was the best thing I ever did. I learned so much in just a couple of weeks,” Rinard said. “[Leffew] has the best mental game. [Leffew} says ‘it’s all a mental game … if you have your head on right, you’ll win’. He can walk into a rodeo, people stop what they are doing just to watch him ride a bull.”
Rinard started competing in IHSRA rodeos during his junior year at Sullivan. Those rodeos are in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, the season running from September to July.
“Every other weekend, a few back-to-back weekends,” Rinard described the IHSRA schedule. “About 10 to 11 events. It’s a good schedule, but not like out in the West where they’ll have 30 to 40 events in a season.”
All rodeo events have a inherent level of danger involved, but bull riding is probably right at the top of the list.
“[Danger] is always in the back of your mind,” Rinard replied. “But if you’re concentrating properly, focusing on the bull ride … the good riders just don’t think about it. If you’re thinking about getting hurt, you’ll probably get hurt. Whatever happens, happens.”
Rinard has not been immune to injury in his short time in bull riding. “I’ve had several concussions, along with some bumps and bruises,” Rinard said. “My helmet has saved me quite a few times.”
He explained wearing a helmet is not mandatory in rodeo competition, but he’s staying sensible, stating “I’m not taking mine off.”
It would be nice to say Rinard enjoyed a storybook ending to his high school career at the NHSFR, but he was unceremoniously bucked off in his two tussles with Wyoming bulls.
“The best bulls I’ve ever been on,” Rinard said. “I guess it was the luck of the draw. But I still had a good time.”
But Rinard is not the least bit discouraged by his performance in Wyoming.
“Soon as I get back, I want to buy my IPRA card,” Rinard said of his plans to join the International Professional Rodeo Association. “I’m going to give [rodeo] a year or so. I want to start hitting rodeos in Oklahoma, Texas … pretty much everywhere.”
