Grit, guts and glory are at the heart of new Sutter Buttes Showdown on May 17
In “The Sun Also Rises,” Ernest Hemingway wrote that “nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters. ” And when it comes to the chute-banging, dirt-breaking action of rodeos in the American West, many see that same risky truth bear out in the lives of professional riders who brace the bulls. Now, Chad Denton, a rough stock combatant who confronted horns and huffing under the weekend lights from Pendleton, Oregon to Cheyanne, Wyoming, is putting on his own “extreme bulls” event at the Yuba-Sutter Fairgrounds.
It’ll be a night to gauge who has the steel to live all the way up. Denton spent more than 15 years fighting for those 8-seconds to win, eventually becoming a PBR world finals qualifier three times and PRCA National Finals Rodeo Qualifier. He’s now using everything he learned about the sport to launch the Sutter Buttes Showdown.
Rodeo-lovers can get their first taste of it on Sunday, May 17, when the gates swing open at 2:30 p. m. Denton grew up in Round Mountain, Nevada, and lives outside of Oroville.
These days, he works for CalFire, though that calling came after a decade-and-a-half of strapping onto some of the toughest toros raging out of iron chutes. As a kid who grew up idolizing bull riders like Ty Murray, Denton never cared much about signing autographs or trying to get highlighted on sports channels. For him, it was always about squaring-off with an 1,800-pound adversary that was a manifestation of raw power.
“What I loved was competing against the bulls,” Denton recalled. “That, and the freedom of getting to travel all over the country with my best friends. Every day was a new town – a new adventure.
Continue to the original source for the full article.