Feisty bulls and tough cowboys thrill Palmetto crowds

They may not have been the absolute best bull riders in the country, but they were close.

On Friday and Saturday, 30 of the top bull riders from the Southeastern United States gathered at the Manatee County Fairgrounds for the seventh annual Conley Invitational. It’s the culminating event of the season for the Southern States Bull Riding.

“It’s kind of like the Super Bowl,” said Jeff Conley, president of Conley Buick GMC in Bradenton, which organizes the event.

Conley compared the SSBR to a AAA baseball league. The top SSBA riders are plenty good enough to compete in Professional Bull Riding, the premier organization in the sport, but haven’t yet landed requisite sponsorships.

All 30 riders competed in Friday’s semifinals. Twenty made the cut and competed Saturday night. They competed in several rounds until the winner was crowned.

The riders were tough, bouncing up immediately after angry bulls tossed them through the air. The riders’ goal is to stay atop the bull for eight seconds. “The longest and most dangerous eight seconds in the sport of rodeo,” announcer Roger Mooney told the crowd of about 3,000 people in the fairgrounds arena.

Before the actual riding started on Saturday, the crowd milled around outside, listening to a country-rock band and enjoying food from vendors, several of whom had stuck around the fairgrounds after the Manatee County Fair ended last weekend. Right at 7 p.m., the competition began after a pyrotechnics display and the national anthem performed by area country singer Eric Von.

It was the seventh year that the SSBR finals have been in Palmetto, but they’ve been going one for much longer than that. They were held in Miami until Conley Buick GMC brought them here.

“We had been looking for a way to do something for the community,” Jeff Conley said. “And it’s for a good cause, the 4-H and the FFA.”

Conley said organizers try to make the event bigger and better every year. This year, for the first time, the Conley Invitational introduced a replay screen on each side of the ring. After each competitor ended his ride, while cowboys in the ring lassoed and corralled bulls back into their pens, the crowd got to watch the ride from several angles. That’s unusual for bull riding competitions, Conley said.

Just like the riders, the bulls were some of the best in the sport. Several had come directly from Madison Square Garden in New York, where they took part in the Professional Bull Riders competition.

In the early going, the bulls got the better of the cowboys.

“I think the bulls are feisty because it’s cold,” said one spectator after the first few riders had been thrown almost immediately. Some were thrown high into the air and bounced when they hit the ground, or thrown 15 feet into the fence. At least one rider had to be helped out of the ring after he was injured. Some of the bulls fought for several minutes before they could be forced into their pens.

Even veteran announcer Mooney was impressed with how active the bulls were during Saturday’s events, calling one “madder than Rosie O’Donnell’s blind date.”

This story was originally published January 28, 2017 at 9:55 PM with the headline "Feisty bulls and tough cowboys thrill Palmetto crowds."