If you’re spotted riding a bull through a parking lot in Pinedale, Wyoming, people may take note.
If it happens in Ohio, they call out the cops.
That’s what happened Thursday when reports of a man wearing a cowboy hat was spotted on top of a Brahma bull outside of the Tractor Supply Co. in Alliance, Ohio.
Authorities investigated and told Cowboy State Daily it was no big deal.
“The bull was very well-behaved and didn't need any intervention on our part,” Sgt. Christopher McCord said. “The store, as well as Walmart (next door) were very OK with it, so it wasn't a nuisance.”
Video released from the police department shows an officer astonished by what he was seeing.
“I have so many questions,” the officer says as he pulls up to the front of the store.
(Alliance, Ohio, Police Department) 
(Alliance, Ohio, Police Department)
The Call
Officer Ronnie Hook was on patrol when his radio crackled with a call that sounded like total bull.
Turns out, it was exactly that.
A dispatcher notified Hook that a man wearing a cowboy hat was riding a “whiteish” bull up and down the parking lot of the Tractor Supply Co., which sells agricultural and livestock supplies, tools, workwear, and boots less than an hour from Akron.
“Is he riding like an actual, real bull?” Hook responded to the dispatcher incredulously, according to a video of the incident posted on the police department’s Facebook page.
When Hook rolled up at Tractor Supply, he was greeted by John Welsh, who was atop a Brahma bull named Gus.
Gus seemed gentle and used to the attention as Welsh showed him off to shoppers while passing through town en route to a rodeo in Columbiana, about 25 miles east of Alliance.
Just Another Day In The West
Instead of writing Welsh a ticket, Hook observed that no laws were being broken and posed with Gus for a shopper’s photo.
Hook then went full-on cowboy, hopping up on the bull for another photo op.
While the encounter with a bull and a rider is not something people in Alliance see every day, it wouldn’t cause much of a commotion in the West, where people still ride their horses to get around.
In Montana, the owners of a convenience store didn’t seem at all worried or excited when a man rode a horse through the place in 2021.
One might think the rider would be banned for taking his horse into a store. But in the Rocky Mountain West, horses are part of the culture.
It’s not uncommon to see someone on a horse in the drive-thru of a fast food restaurant, and many rural Wyoming kids will ride their horses to school on the last day of the year.
A manager at Tractor Supply reached by phone Friday, who declined to provide her name, said she was not authorized to speak about the incident.
Scott Schwebke can be reached at scott@cowboystatedaily.com.
