Dan's Papers June 18, 2010 by Dan's Papers

DAN'S PAPERS, June 18, 2010 Page 42 www.danshamptons.com

Rodeo

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padding in the vest takes most of the blow,” he said. This “blow” occurs during every bull ride, whether or not the rider stays on for the requisite eight seconds. A bull will usually keep bucking until the rider is off its back, which means the only way off a bull is by being tossed through the air to the ground. “I’ve broken my arm a few times by being thrown off and having it stepped on…I’ve had a lot of concussions, stitches,” Phillips said, adding that he once placed second in an event two weeks after breaking his arm. While it’s hard to believe there’s a ‘favorite thing’ about bull riding, Phillips has one: spurring. “It’s when you yank your leg free and give the bull a little kick,” he said. “It adds style

and shows control.” Such a maneuver is essential to completing the perfect ride, which Phillips described. “The bull is kicking straight up while also rotating at the same time…the person is riding perfectly, squaring away on the bull.” Phillips finishes his ritual by putting on boot spurs and leg chaps, then heads out to the small turn-back arena. “A few years ago I didn’t have this,” Phillips says, referring to his practice arena. “I had to go to New Jersey to practice.” Because of logistics, Phillips would only practice three or four times a month. Now he says he tries to practice “every day on a live bull, whether it is raining or not.” In addition to that, he has a plastic bull that he uses to

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work on his form. Beyond his physical preparation, Phillips also psychs himself. “I mentally prepare with a picture of the perfect ride in my head, then I try to reenact it.” Phillips leaves me at the gate of the arena. He opens a hatch to enter a pen where the bulls are patiently waiting to perform a job that Phillips tells me comes naturally to them: “A lot of bulls know their job, they start bucking and they know what to do.” Aided by his father and his sister, Phillips gets one of the bulls from the holding pen into the chute—this is the small area where the rider mounts the bull for the first time. A cow is mooing in the background, a chicken is fluttering in the barn, and birds are singing from the tree branches as Phillips climbs on. He puts a glove on his riding hand, checks that his hat is secure on his head, and signals to his father and sister that he is ready. His sister grabs a rope that’s tied to the swinging gate door, his father grabs the bolt to the door, and I grab my camera hoping to catch the perfect shot. At once, his father slides the bolt, his sister pulls the door, and Phillips explodes out of the gate on the bull. I snap a quick picture and escape from behind the lens to watch the rest of the action. Phillips is squared away on the middle of the bull; his right hand is holding onto his braided rope; his offhand reaches to the sky; (continued on page 46)

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