For those who follow the burgeoning sport of bull riding, the stars are naturally the riders themselves — who train for years to master the art of staying atop a 1,700-pound bucking bull for a full eight seconds, while maintaining a certain control, if not graceful authority.
Then there’s Randy Spraggins, who’s charged with getting 750 tons of dirt — or 35 dump-truck loads — into New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
Spraggins, an independent contractor who’s worked with the Professional Bull Riders organization — PBR, for short — since its inception 31 years ago, is the “soil savant” behind the sport, as one industry insider refers to him. He is responsible not just for trucking dirt in and out of the many arenas where PBR stages competitions, but for also making sure it is just right — soft enough for the riders to land on as safely as possible when they inevitably fall, but hard enough to give the bulls the right footing.
“When the ground is good, the bulls are bucking,” Spraggins, a 62-year-old North Dakota native, explains.
These days, he has his work cut out for him. The PBR has not only added different types of events, it has also increased the number of cities in its mix, including to some areas known more for congestion than cowboys. Newcomers and recent returnees to the coast-to-coast circuit include Milwaukee, Manchester, N.H., Albany, N.Y., and Ocean City, Md. Rodeo organizers sometimes have to adjust their routines in locales that are not exactly home, home on the range.
When bull riders make their way to Madison Square Garden, as they did earlier this year, it’s never an easy lift for Spraggins — or the dozens of other behind-the-scenes employees and contractors.
In Spraggins’s case, there’s the sheer challenge of bringing the dirt into traffic-filled Midtown Manhattan. His solution: He does his trucking in the stealth of night, one load at a time.
It’s not any mere dirt. Spraggins needs that perfect combination of clay soil for firmness and sandy soil for some give. For the Madison Square Garden event, he taps a company in New Jersey to formulate the dirt to his exacting specifications.
PBR chief executive and commissioner Sean Gleason says his organization will fight back if the legislation passes.
“We’re cowboys and we believe the truth will prevail,” he says, adding that 22,000 people attended the multi-day Los Angeles event in February — proof in his view that PBR has a home in the market.
The animals, raised by specialty breeders much like racehorses, also require ranch-style (or, at least, fairgrounds-style) sleeping accommodations—not a simple find in congested metro areas, so for New York City events, the PBR heads to rural New Jersey two hours away.
Tiffany Davis, a breeder who works the circuit, recalls driving into the city with her trailer full of bulls and contending with impatient drivers blowing their horns.
“It’s like, ‘Welcome to New York,’” she says.
Tim Rogers, a 56-year-old Bronx-born software developer who lives in Long Island, is among New Yorkers who have become bull-riding aficionados.
Rogers attended his first PBR event at Madison Square Garden with his wife last year. The couple got so hooked they returned this year for all three days.
“It is just breathtaking,” says Rogers, whose enthusiasm has him embracing a whole Western lifestyle. “I’m into country music now,” he says.
Many first-time attendees fail to understand a bull rider doesn’t automatically “win” by staying atop the bull for the requisite eight seconds. Rather, he’s scored by judges on how well he handled the ride, presuming he makes it through those eight seconds.
The PBR has a video it runs before events for newbies — a kind of Bull Riding 101. One narrated detail: “The clock starts when the bull’s shoulders or hips have cleared the chute.”
When the crowd is restless, the PBR relies on Flint Rasmussen, a veteran rodeo clown who has songs on hand that play to local sentiment. In New England, it’s “Sweet Caroline’’; in New York, “Piano Man.”
“If you think you can do the same show in New York City as in Billings, Montana, well, that’s why I have a job,” he says.
He notes that New York crowds can be tough. If a number of riders fail to last the eight seconds atop the bull, attendees will start booing. “You don’t do that in cowboy world,” he says.
And rider Eli Vastbinder says he does get strange looks when he makes his way about New York City wearing Western regalia. “To the people there, you’re just an alien.”
Spraggins, the PBR’s “soil savant,” has little down time in most cities he visits. If he isn’t hauling dirt, he’s working on sourcing the right kind. “It’s a constant battle week to week,” he says.
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