Cowboys everywhere were likely breathing a sigh of relief when news got out that Bones the bull had passed away.
Dozens of bull riders likely reached, instinctively, to their elbows, shoulders, necks and other body parts ravaged by the 1,550-pound beast, remembering an old hurt or ache that never goes away.
A mere five cowboys — the only contestants to make a qualified ride on Bones — probably raised a beer in honor of one of the nastiest bulls they ever climbed onto.
“That bull handed me my hat,” said two-time PBR World Champion Justin McBride.
“He wiped some guys out,” said legendary bull rider Ty Murray.
“He’s one of the best bulls the PBR has ever seen,” added Professional Bull Riders Livestock Director Cody Lambert.
The two-time world champion bull enjoyed a short but remarkable career, pounding into the dust some of the best bull riders in the world.
In only four years (2006-2010) on the PBR circuit, Bones snagged world titles twice and was ridden to the 8-second whistle just five times in 45 tries.
Retired early at the age of 7, Bones enjoyed a long, pampered life on owner Tom Teague’s farm in North Carolina until he died Aug. 15. He was 21.
“I loved the animal like I would love a dog or any pet. I was happy to have something really special and I treated him that way. With extra feed, comfortable surroundings,” Teague said. “I even put a kept a cow in there with him ’til the day he died.
“I’ve been married three times, so maybe I have something to learn here, because he never run that ol’ gal off. He liked her company.”
Love-Hate Relationship
Bones was not near as gentlemanly with bull riders as he was with his bovine acquaintances. He wasn’t as mean as Bodacious, as athletic as Little Yellow Jacket, or clever as Bushwacker ... but he was close.
Bones was the whole package. Power, athleticism and the smarts to know how to get riders out of shape whether it was their first time on him or third.
Ask Justin McBride. The two-time PBR champ was at the top of his game when he eased down on the relatively unknown 5-year-old bull at an event in Columbus, Ohio, in 2008.
McBride ate arena dirt. He had underestimated Bones.
The two met again later that year at the PBR World Finals in 2008. McBride knew what to expect this time, but admitted Bones had gotten smarter and better. The second time around Bones bucked McBride off even quicker, 4.7 seconds into the ride.
“It had been a long time since a bull had treated me that way,” McBride would say in a post-event interview. “He’s the real deal.”
McBride never rode Bones to the whistle, one of only two bulls he never covered in his career.
Guilherme Marchi was the world champion bull rider that year. He didn’t fare much better aboard Bones. In fact, in three tries, Marchi was dusted every time.
“When he bucked Marchi off in Vegas for his second championship, I remember that bull rider coming up to me and saying he wanted to buy Bones,” Teague recalled.
“What do you want with my bull?” Teague asked.
“I want to kill him,” Marchi replied.
Teague watched his prized bull time and again fling cowboys into the air. He never wished for the cheers. It was fans rooting for the cowboy. Groans meant his bet was paying off.
“I would have to get on my wife once in a while when I would catch her pulling for the rider more than the bull,” Teague said. “‘Don’t say that out loud,’ I would say to her. ‘That’s our bull.’”
Hopping Hamburger
For Teague, Bones was a first and only. He had part ownership of other bulls. He has since bred and bucked other bulls.
But Bones was one of a kind. He put Teague Bucking Bulls on the map and helped solidify PBR as the premier eventer of its kind.
And the way Bones came into being was pure happenstance.
Teague admits he did not see the potential in Bones early on, but he did take a shine to his momma.
Teague was working with legendary rodeo producer Bobby Steiner getting a few cows prepped for auction when Steiner ran up to Teague out of breath.
“You’ll never believe this,” Steiner said. “One of them damn cows has just jumped the fence and landed in this water tank area. We don’t have a gate to get her out of there.”
“Well, I just had to see what kind of cow could jump that fence because it was extra high,” Teague recalled. “I got there, and before we could figure a way to get her out, she solved the problem for us. Jumped clear over the fence again like a deer.”
Teague told Steiner to pull her out of the sale on the spot.
“Whatever she has I want in a bull,” Teague said.
That cow, a non-descript dam named only by number (AS 13), ended up throwing Bones as her one and only prodigy. None of her other offspring ever lived up to the PBR star’s status.
Bones was scrawny and skittish from the get-go. Described as a “bag of bones” by Teague’s stock trainer, Lee Holt, the name stuck.
“He was the poorest little thing. He was too small to take care of himself with the other calves so they moved him to be alone in the barn,” Holt once said.
The preferred treatment Bones received would carry on for the rest of his life. It might be why the shy little bull turned out to be such a competitor and champion.
“I don’t know what it was about Bones. I guess because we kept him and fed him,” Teague said. “We always took good care of him. I guess it's just the environment they grow up in like your kids, you know what I’m saying?
“I tried to clone him. We never got any clones out of him. I also cloned his mother. I’ve still got some of his mother’s cows down in South Texas.”
But he was never able to produce another Bones.
He was something special.
The Making Of A Legend
Teague didn’t see it right away.
Training included marching the little bull around in deep sand to build muscle and stamina.
Teague wasn’t even there the first time they bucked him out. Bones tossed a local hotshot with ease.
Before long, Teague had people coming up to him after every event.
“I still didn’t know he would be that good a bull,” Teague said. “But some of the clowns would come up to me and say, ‘You got a bull there that is gonna be a bad one.’ Ty [Murray] came up to me once and said, ‘That one there is gonna be a good bull.’”
Good bull, bad bull. It all means the same thing. Everyone who rode him, fought him, saw him knew Bones was destined to be one to remember.
“He could do things in how high and vertical he’d kick that you wouldn’t think a bull could physically do,” Murray once said of Bones.
Teague said his little black baldy wasn’t really bad to the bone. He just did not like to lose.
“Similar to Little Yellow Jacket, Bones was one of those bulls that would come after you like he wanted to kill you if you made the whistle,” Teague said. “He had a little of his mother in him that way. It really made him mad when someone rode him.
“Most of the time, though, he won. You were gone in 2-3 seconds and Bones would just turn around and stare you down while you got up.”
Bones had intangible gifts as well. When other bulls sweated out their energy in pre-ride anxiety, Bones was “slow heart rate” chill until the gate swung open.
“Some of those bulls with the nervous energy, those Brazilian riders would figure out pretty quick how to wear them down in the chute before the ride,” Teague said. “Not Bones. He would be laying down chewing his cud while they shot off fireworks before the show.
“When he loaded, he would just stand there in the chute and would not fight [the rider].”
One bull rider likened getting on Bones to climbing on a rock he was so spring-loaded poised and still.
Showdown Of Champions
February 2009, Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City was the scene for a showdown still talked about among bull riders.
Bones was unrideable. Thirteen had tried him, 13 had not made the 8 seconds. A $20,000 side bet bounty was placed on any cowboy who could ride Bones.
JB Mauney pleaded to be the one to draw Bones. Full of bravado, tough as nails and the fastest-rising star on the circuit, the fellow North Carolinian was given that chance.
It was to be a face-off for the ages.
Mauney stuck with the bucking bull for every one of his signature moves. The spin left, the high dive, the shoulder dip. It was like riding a rhino crossed with a hummingbird.
Mauney made the whistle for 93.5 points, the highest-scored ride Bones would ever surrender. The shocked Bones chased Mauney clear to the fence, ignoring the bullfighters.
The bull would get his revenge later that year at the PBR World Finals in October. Mauney won the event despite coming off Bones 4 seconds into his ride in the revenge match.
In all, just four other cowboys ever rode Bones to a qualified ride.
Before the beginning of the 2011 season, Teague announced his bull was going to pasture. PBR stockman Cody Lambert couldn’t believe it. He tried hard to talk Teague out of it.
“He almost did,” Teague admitted. “But I'm in the business world and Cody is in the bucking bull world. I'm pretty sharp. I’m 83 and I still work every day.”
Teague also felt the heat for the way he babied Bones. Not bringing him to every event. Using him sparingly like a good prize fighter to keep him fresh.
“There was pressure on me. Some people got mad at me because I wouldn’t take him to every bull riding event in the world,” Teague said. “Well, a boxer doesn’t fight every day. I wasn’t going to wear him out riding up and down the damn road.”
The Greatest At A Great Time
If not for Bushwacker, who many consider the greatest bull of all time, Bones would be in that conversation. Bones certainly pushed Bushwacker and vice-versa.
They were the rodeo stock Tom Brady and Payton Manning of their time. Frazier and Ali.
Some experts rank Bones as high as No. 3 in a list of greatest bulls. Pro Bull Stats has Bones at 16th best all-time — the disappointing ranking mostly a result of his short career.
Bones’ buck-off rate (88.89% at all levels of his career) was impressive enough. But his mix of brawn and brains was what made him the bull every good hand wanted to ride. If you stuck him, you scored in the 90s. Either that, or you hoped the ambulance was parked close by.
In 2014, Bones became the fourth bull given the sport’s highest honor for an animal athlete, the PBR Brand of Honor. Teague left the stock contracting business the same year.
Bones is buried on Teague’s farm right next to a fellow legendary bucker, Little Yellow Jacket. Teague had become so impressed with that little bull during his career he bought half ownership and finally the whole bull so he could bury him with dignity.
A stone marker is on the way for Bones, just like Yellow Jacket’s.
Bones was Teague’s last bull, and his best.
Contact Jake Nichols at Jake@cowboystatedaily.com
Jake Nichols can be reached at jake@cowboystatedaily.com.
