Some people debate whether racecar drivers are athletes because they drive around in circles for a few hours.
Driving a car at 200 miles per hour can be dangerous. But what if you got the car angry, hopped on and tried to ride the thing?
Welcome to the world of bull riding, where grown men try to hold on for dear life to a bucking animal 10 times their size.
"It's a pretty good workout," Ardie Maier said at last year's World's Oldest Rodeo in Prescott. "You've got to want to do it. You have to take it seriously. It's a pretty dangerous sport."
At the time, Maier, a 27-year-old from Timber Lake, S.D., was feeling the effects of riding a 2,000-pound behemoth day after day.
"Right now I'm pretty sore because we've been to about 10, 15 rodeos in the last seven days," Maier said. "Been flyin' everywhere, so stretch out good and go for it, I guess."
The bulls can live to be about 8, 9, or 10 years old. They can be between 1,200 pounds to a ton and perform twice a week at most. They take it easy, eating about 20 pounds of grain and 30 pounds of hay per day before the chute opens and they give hell to the cowboy on their back.
Then again, riders want a bull that has got some fire.
"One they can win on. That's the name of the game," livestock contractor Harry Vold said. "One that kicks and spins."
Cowboys can research their bulls and know what to expect.
"Just rodeoin', you kind of know what people are winning on and whose bulls are good," Myron Duarte said. "Where they place and what they score. As long as they buck, jump and kick over their head. That's what guys are looking for."
Last year, Duarte's research told him he had a good bull with "normal movement out of the chute." The gate then opened and Old Blue Eyes sent him flying in short order for no score.
Who can last eight seconds? That is the question.
Chase Carrasco said last year that he isn't big on researching his bull. He doesn't try to think about it other than not getting thrown off.
"Stay on. You just try to ride your bull," Carrasco said.
Maier had just returned this time last year from a neck injury - he broke it in two places.
All in the line of duty.
Some riders' worst injuries were just a broken leg, but that's simply one among many.
"I've had quite a few injuries," Jesse Bail said. "It seems like the last few years I've been banged up a lot."
Bail scored an 85 last year, good for third at the World's Oldest Rodeo. He made the run and still got ejected and wound up limping out of the arena. Though he had been limping beforehand, too. But he got the best of both worlds. He lasted eight seconds, posted a good score and walked away.
