Has Anyone Made A Jr. Bull Riding Rig

[Slow Learner]

My grandson age 5, is into bullriding and want a rig. If you have ever priced them you understand why I want to make them. I don't know that I have ever seen one up close so I don't know where to begin. Need help.!

[wyomingcowboy]

I don't know what you mean by bull riding rig. Bull riders use braided ropes. Bareback riders use riggins but you had better not try to make one. They are highly specialized and very difficult to make using mostly rawhide. There are currently only two bareback riggin makers in the world, currently. The same goes for bull ropes except that there are many different rope makers out there. Barstow Pro Rodeo Equipment has been around for a long time and are considered the industry standard and would be a great place to start looking. Sorry for the bad news. I totally understand the concern with cost but as far as equipment goes you're much better off paying the money......for safety concerns if nothing else.

As far as the other stuff goes - chaps, spur straps, bell straps, etc. there are hundreds of variations. Good luck and have fun!

[Blackey Cole]

Are you talking about the pad for the rope or the rope itself? I bought mine at a pawn store when I rode back in the 80s. Try and find a used one, it already broken in and stretched.

[Treed]

For Jr Bull riding equipment look for saddle barn equipment..... It is the most used for beginners just starting out. The time and money involved in learning to make a bull rope is going to be very high. I do not know your experience in braiding but Bull ropes require expertise in getting the handle right, the plats correct etc. It is a very specialized area of expertise and have watched bull rope makers. They are very time consuming and why good bull ropes cost.

[Slickhorn]

Considering that this is over a year old, I'll assume that a solution has been found already, but I noticed that most of these responses were scattered through that time, and I'm more than willing to help where/how I can when it comes to bull ropes. Honestly, it was kinda a breath of fresh air to see a thread about bull ropes here, since the saddlemaking threads are all WAY over my head (for now, God willing!).

I'm a 4th gen rodeo cowboy, semi-retired at this point, as I've been riding bulls and bareback horses for over 20yrs (moreso due to wife and kids than any other reason). I've also been making bull ropes for almost 10yrs. I've been coaching high school, youth, and college riders and putting on bull riding clinics/schools for as long.

Kids ropes, while fantastically simpler to braid than adult bull ropes, are still very time consuming, and the "tricks" in the ropes that account for their durability, functionality, and safety aren't really easy to pick out unless you have someone show you how to braid it.

What to look for in a kid rope - you do NOT want a kid rope that looks just like an adult rope. If he's riding sheep at 5-6yrs old, then it might only be 8ft long, with a calf rope slightly longer. Kids are REALLY hard to build ropes for, as they might ride anything from a shorn sheep up through a junior/miniature bull. Kids ropes should be 5 plait all the way through, with a strong riser, but a skip lace handle, or a half-length full lace handle with NO CORD. The tail should be loose to medium braided 7 plait, and the whole shebang needs to be under an inch wide for the entire length, with the handle as narrow as a half inch (mine are usually 5/8"). Comparatively, the handles of adult bull ropes are always 9 plait, a much harder/stiffer braid, and are full laced through the hand with options for half length, skip, or full length full lacing. The riser is what really keeps the kid safe and prevents hang ups. The rest of the rope being 5 plait will offer some give that tends to be nicer to growing bodies, and takes some of the snap out of faster moving, smaller stock, let alone taking that snap off of those young developing, under-strengthed joints and muscles.The smaller width will be more apt to fit smaller hands. Oddly, kids can use a proportionately wider handle than adults - as mentioned, kids handles are usually in the 1/2" to 5/8" width, whereas I've ridden my entire career on 7/8" to 1 1/8" handles, with quite large hands. Most kids ropes are cut from 1/2" polypropylene, whereas adult ropes are typically 7/8" rope, but a lot of funky things are going on these days with different body materials.

The best idea to mitigate costs as a kid rider is to buy a used rope. Kids don't hardly ever wear out a rope, so used ropes tend to be almost as good of condition as the day they left the braider. Kids will change stock size very quickly as they grow up and most kids don't have a busy enough rodeo schedule to wear one out, and again - they leave the braider pretty limp as it is, so there's not much to wear out on them in general. I suppose it's fair to say that "used ropes come from somewhere," so SOMEBODY has to buy it new before it can be sold used, but as you're seeing, you'll often have over $100 into a kids rope.

Saddlebarn sells decent kids ropes, but if he's serious about competing, there are far better ropes out there. I know a couple 5-10yr old kids that make more money riding junior bulls each year than I made my first year out of college, as you can imagine, the rope they use is very different than a rope used by a kid that gets on at 2 or 3 local shows each season.

Side note: The kid's saddlebarn vests are typically sufficient, but by the time the kid gets to say 100-120lbs, a Ride Right or Phoenix is really the way to go. As a "guy that fixes stuff" around rodeo, I've repaired a lot of vests, and the saddlebarn adult vests are basically made the same as the little kid vests - and I will say it this way - Cardboard should NOT be involved in a bull riding vest.

I'll also say two things to you that I say to every kid/adult that I've ever talked to about starting to ride bulls.

1) Bull riding is the worst idea anybody ever has. For some of us, it's just inside of us, so no matter what, that's where our life will go. For the rest of folks, it's a HUGELY STUPID RISK. I had a kid at a school a few years ago, 20yrs old, college kid, parents paid for the school because he always wanted to try it. It was either the 3rd or 4th bull he'd ever got on, he got rolled up on the ground and broke his neck, he'll never walk again. He wasn't out to be a career cowboy, just a guy that wanted to try something that looked "extreme". I'd never tell someone how to live their life, and certainly not how to raise their kids or grandkids, but I'd be remiss if I didn't tell it like it is. I've seen too many pros get seriously hurt, even at "po-dunk" rodeos on "pud" stock, that I really gotta say if it's not something a person NEEDS to do in their life, then it's much better left alone.

2) Bull ropes are consumable items. They aint cheap, but entry fees aren't either, and falling off because your rope isn't in top shape costs a lot more than a new rope would have. Even at amateur rodeos these days, making ONE EXTRA RIDE will pay back a new rope as compared to trying to wring the last life out of a worn out rope. I've been on both sides of that coin. I started braiding ropes because I couldn't afford as many new ropes as I needed each year. In my prime I was getting on 300-400 head each season between practice and competition, and I could go through 4 ropes easily each year. For the average circuit cowboy, they should be getting a new rope every season. Riding style, rope preference, body type, and success rate all play in there - a big heavy guy that either really cranks over the top or really lets back and makes 8 seconds on most of his bulls will wear out a rope a lot faster than a leg riding pip-squeak rider that falls off at 2 seconds every ride. A lot of riders will say that rope braiders are the ones that came up with the "new rope every 50-75 head" or "new rope every season" rules to drum up business, but the reality is that if you're riding well, you won't usually get more than about 150 head out of a GREAT rope, and 50 or less out of "budget friendly ropes" before the handle and riser are broken down to the point that it'll hurt your riding percentage.

#2 isn't usually a problem for young kids, again, because they might take 4yrs to hit 75 head, and their ropes aren't under the same stresses as adult ropes, AND again, they advance to larger stock that out grows them sooner than that, but it's still something to be mindful of.

Feel free to PM me if you want some lines on where to look, or any other advice on gear, training, technique, training tools, or anything else rodeo or bull riding.

[Treed]

Great information, I agree with you. My grandson who is 10 rides with a custom made rope that costs damn near as much at an adult rope. But he is a serious rider that no one will ever stop, goes to schools and wins.