The PBR’s “No Holding the Tail in the Chute” Rule

This one is simple: If anyone doesn’t like it, they can just blame me.

In 2007, Joe Merrick called and asked if I’d run the front of the chutes at the ABBI Wild Card event in Enid, Okla. After watching several hundred bulls buck, I noticed that as good as they were bucking, there were very few that stood in the chutes like they should have. I was really wondering what was causing it, and I noticed every single flankman—not most of them, every single one that I can remember—was pulling on the bull’s tail and holding onto the bull’s tail.

I’ve got close to 40 years experience in this sport and I’ve never seen one flankman strong enough to hold a bull’s tail and change his direction or to get him from running into the chute, if that is what he is going to do. I was talking to the PBR board and asked them if I could make it a ground rule at the 2007 PBR World Finals that no one could be allowed to grab the bull’s tail. They agreed and at the 2007 Finals, not one bull fouled a rider out of the whole Finals. So they obviously didn’t need to hold their tail. So we made it a regular rule in the PBR. Since ABBI Classics are also PBR events, that also became the rule for the ABBI bulls at Classic events.

After 1-1/2 years of that being a PBR rule, we have a lot less bulls leaning and laying down in the chute and we rarely have a foul when one leaves the chute. So I can say that the bulls stand better in the chutes without the flankman aggravating them by pulling their tails.

The ABBI Futurity bulls should be left alone as well. If the gateman opens the gate right, they should leave the chute OK. Futurity bulls are smaller, so a guy might be strong enough to hold one’s tail to the back corner of the chute to keep them from turning out backwards, but they need to learn the correct way, just like the Classic bulls. If they don’t have a bad experience in the bucking chute, they are more likely to stand up. Now, there is no actual rule against it at the Futurities, but after a 1-1/2 years of watching the bulls relax more in the chutes and the fouls in the chute decreasing, there is no reason anyone should be doing it. And in Enid, for example, a lot of the guys were doing it just because they saw someone else doing it—they weren’t even doing it for a reason.

It is also worth noting that the PBR doesn’t allow the flankman to touch a bull once he is flanked. We don’t want the fans in the stands or on TV to have any misconception that maybe the bull was poked or there was a hotshot used on him (which is illegal in the PBR).

We care about the welfare and treatment of the animals and it is important we all work together to educate the public on the care and treatment of our animal athletes and not leave any room for any action that could be misinterpreted.