Broke five ribs,
busted shoulder, broke my leg,
bull flipped over when I went in the shoot,
messed all my wrist up.
I been knocked out a few times.
And I had my teeth knocked out.
Broke a foot,
pulled a groin.
Touch wood - I'm lucky.
Bulls, they're athletes.
They're big, strong, they know what they're doing.
They'll hurt you.
My name's Cody Heffernan,
I'm 25 and a professional bullrider.
I first started when I was four.
I got on my first calf,
Only really small,
and progressed through to steers,
junior bulls, novice bulls,
and open bulls - big bulls when I was 17.
I guess people see this as an extreme sport.
I was in Blackmore, Queensland
and they said that this bull, he was going
to be right there to the right.
And he was.
And I got in there a bit too much
and he smacked me up the chin
with his horn
and he knocked me out right there.
I hit the ground
and then apparently he jumped on me.
I came to when I was in the ambulance
all strapped up - I thought I was done.
Yeah, I just thought my bullriding career was over.
But luckily it wasn't.
So firstly, you've got to ride your bull for eight seconds.
You know how well you ride the bull,
I stay down in the middle and in control
for the full eight seconds then I've scored pretty well.
If I get a bit out of control and hanging down the side
they'll knock points off.
I'm Dave Mason and I'm 27.
Bullriding is just like any sport,
tennis or soccer - it's got a set of basics
and there's ways to make it easy for yourself,
and there's ways to make it hard.
But keep practising now, and get it right buddy.
Take control of the bull now, keep it simple.
Knowing there's nothing that bull can do
to throw you off when you're riding one perfect.
There's no better feeling in the world.
The adrenalin of doing it,
the more someone says they've got a bull
that can't be ridden and you get on it
and stick all over it
and make it look easy and ride it properly.
There's no better feeling in the world. At all.
A lot of bulls these days, they're bred for rodeo
and for bullriding events.
If it's not, their fathers would have been bucking bulls,
their mother's fathers would have been bucking bulls,
something like that.
My name is Mitch Russell and I'm 29.
I'm from Maitland and a professional protection athlete.
First and firemost, we protect the bullriders.
That's our main job.
Secondly the bulls - it's evolved over the years.
It went from the big baggy jeans
to the rodeo clowns were doing that as well
and also fight the bulls.
Today we're still called rodeo clowns as such,
but there's three protection athletes
bullfighters - just get the bull to look at us
instead of the cowboy.
In case they are unconcious.
They're laying there helpless -
if someone's going to get jumped on we're there
to get jumped on, so if they're out
we'll cover them up and take the hit
while they can't fend for themselves.
I couldn't count the number of times
that Mitch and them boys saved my arse.
Just from getting off one and right there
he's going to hook me, or I've got my hand caught in the rope.
They're the unsung heroes of this sport.
We're going to see the best bulls in Australia buck.
Best bullriders on the night,
so hopefully I get a win.
I don't look too much into what it is,
or how much hype they put in to it or anything,
I just do what I've got to do.
I've got three bulls to ride,
and if I go there and ride all three bulls regardless
of what happens, then I can go home happy.
Fear - not really fear.
The biggest fear I'd probably say is falling off
and not doing my job.
You know, knowing that I could have done better.
All you've got to do is kick back and enjoy the ride.
We all wear a vest - that's mandatory.
Saved a lot of guy's lives.
Guys can choose to wear a hat or a helmet,
I choose to wear a hat.
Just to keep it old-school.
Nothing's going to stop a 1000kg bull jumping on you.
That's going to hurt no matter how much protection you've got on you.
There's no off switch in this sport.
That bull's not going to stop
because you tell him to because you're hurt.
Prior to bucking the bull out there
we do mental preparations
and I do a few breathing exercises
and going through the ride in my mind,
about what a bull could do
and what moves I could make,
the correct moves, and just
picturing an eight second ride every time.
You don't want your mind getting in your way
so you keep it clear - all that knowledge that you put in
when that bull's out there doing his thing
you've just got to react.
You don't have time to think.
And once we're in the shoot - it's all routine.
You put your hand in, slap your face a few times,
pull a mean face, and open the gate.
I want you to get off on him, come on!
Bambi's blood!
Bring it back to the left!
Sit up!
It's a mental game.
Sometimes you feel like you never rode a bull before
and you come back and you hang your head down.
You fall off one, you've just got to pick yourself up real quick.
You can watch a bull have 100 trips,
on the 101st trip he'll do something completely different.
I don't size them up too much - I'd just rather show up,
I know what I've got to do - I know how to do it.
Get on and do it.
Here he is! Trying, desperately...
but try is not going to be enough tonight, folks.
Frustration, and plenty of it.
Back to the drawing board.
The first one got me on the gatepost leaving the shoot,
but it wasn't enough to get a re-ride
because it was enough to throw me out of position.
That's what happens, you know.
That second one just got me by the arm and threw me off.
I'm just doing me job at the end of the day.
Yeah, it's been good.
There's three bullfighters, we're still out there.
The cowboys are all walking out,
so it's been pretty good.
Eight seconds!
For me, like, if I make a really good ride on a bull
that's really tough and I make it look easy
that's the best feeling for me.
You know, a lot of fellas had trouble with him,
and I just made him look easy.
I love that. Love that feeling.