‘He’s so good’, 19-year-old captures second Wild Thing championship

CHURCH ROCK, N.M.
Wild Thing winner Travis Wimberly has a little side bet going on with one of his friends.

The Los Lunas, N.M. bull rider captured his second championship win on Saturday night with an electrifying 89-point ride before a sold-out crowd at Red Rock Park.

“I’m so thankful for my friends and family for pushing me and striving for me to be my best,” Wimberly said. “I’m very thankful for Larry (Peterson) for putting on a great bull riding. It was amazing with the great fans. There are no other bull ridings better than this.”

Wimberly is seeking to outdo four other two-time winners as the 19-year-old is looking to get a third and fourth title in the coming years.

“You know, my friend Zaryah Mueller’s dad won it (two) times and if I win it three, four times I’ll win the $500 side bet that we have going on,” he said.

Wimberly was speaking of 1998-99 Wild Thing double winner Daniel Mueller. Three other bull riders have completed that task with Robertson Cody winning it in 2004-05 while Hadley Miller bested the field in 2012-13 and most recently Lane Nobles captured the 2014-15 titles.

With him being so young, Wimberly could possibly do that as he won his first title in 2021.

On Saturday night, he rode Panhandler, a Sammy Andrews Rodeo Company bull, for the event’s top score.

“I’ve seen my buddy get on him (on Friday) night and he was pretty good,” Wimberly said. “He was just right there blowing up. You really didn’t know what he was gonna do, so I just stayed in the middle and I had to bare down.

“He wanted to click my heels the whole time,” he added. “But I just kept trying and I kept on riding until I hit the ground.”

Wild Thing promoter Larry Peterson said Wimberly is an established bull rider, having competed in the PBR despite being so young.

“He’s so good,” Peterson said. “That young man is going all over the country, riding everywhere.”

His 89-point ride earned him the top prize of $10,890 as he surpassed the 87-point score turned in by 16-year-old Xavier Antez, who got entered by way of winning the Memorial Day Bullarama hosted by Jacob Custom Buckers in Breadsprings, N.M.

“He won his spot into the Wild Thing,” Peterson said of Antez. “They gave the champion a spot here and to win the Memorial Day Bullarama you got to have a good hand.”

“I’m the first qualifier to ride here in 10 years,” Antez said. “That was a pretty cool moment to live.”

The Diné bull rider said he stayed positive throughout his ride even though his bull, Sammy Andrews’ Overachiever, was looking to buck him off.

“I had to hustle,” Antez said. “It got to the point to where I got behind and I had to try and get up front. He eventually slammed me, but I heard the buzzer right before I hit the ground.”

The Lybrook, N.M. cowboy acknowledged that he was feeding off the crowd to make his ride count as he took home the second-place prize of $8,890.

“Hearing that crowd made me want to try harder,” he said. “I mean, that felt good. It helps when the crowd goes wild and I guess that tells me I’m doing something right.”

The soon-to-be senior at Cuba High School is looking to get entered in more open bulls and, perhaps, make this year’s Indian National Finals Rodeo in October.

“This gives me a lot of confidence,” he said. “I’m going to keep challenging myself so that I can get better. I want to get into the pros when I turn 18.”

Friday night leader Cody Hodges took third with the 85.5-point he turned in aboard the Owen Washburn product, Rutten Buck.

“He almost dropped down in the well about that third jump,” Hodges said. “I just kicked loose and got a hold and got back in the middle.”

The Honey Grove, Tex., cowboy took home $5,445 in his first-ever Wild Thing participation.

“I’ve known it for four years and I’ve been trying to get in,” he said. “You know, this is a good deal with good bull riding and good bulls.”

Hodges said the financial windfall will help him out a lot as he was one of at least 10 bull riders to make the trek to Gallup from Texas.

“From where I’m from, it’s a 13-hour drive,” he said, “so this was all worth it.”

In fourth place, Luke Mackey, 17, collected $2,723 with his 84-point score on Slow Burn, an Owen Washburn bull.

“It’s one of his younger bulls and he’s pretty good,” Mackey said. “He felt pretty good coming out and he had a little bit of blow, but he kind of died down a little bit.

“But at the start I thought he had me, so I had to really work at it,” he added.

Last year, the Ignacio, Colo., cowboy split sixth place in his Wild Thing debut. Coupled with this year’s finish, Mackey said he’s looking to win next year’s event.

“I was pretty determined that I was gonna win it this year,” he said. “I’m gonna keep trying so I’ll keep coming back.”

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