My name is Robert Mimms
I've been riding bulls 43 years
loving every minute of it
My neighbor was a bull rider
His name was Cooder Kenny
Cooder would go off, work cattle in the daylight.
me and my brothers would sneak across the fence
to ride his cattle he had penned up in his corral.
One day he came home and me and my brothers took off running
and I got halfway home I turned around
and went back
It was like facing the demon
"What are you boys doing?''
''I want to be a bull rider, sir.''
He laughed a little bit.
He said, "You can't ride bulls like that.''
"Are you going to show me how?"
I was a smart little fella
And he said, "Yeah, I'll teach you."
The next day I came over early, like he told me
He handed me a shovel and a rake
I was only nine years old
I cleaned stalls, I cleaned stalls
I shovelled shit
It was in his blood
because his Grandpa used to ride bulls
My daddy rode bulls
He did alright
He was a hard headed little boy
That buckle, that buckle is a symbol
of a guy that's won all year long
and he he earned that there, I mean
man against beast
Bulls are like, like people, you know
I'm fun to be around, happy go lucky
But one day if I wake up and I'm pissed off at the world
hey
I'm pissed off at the world
Basically what you're doing is keeping in motion with the bull
It's eighty to ninety percent mental
The other ten to twenty percent
is muscle memory
All bull riders have a different style, you know, whatever fits them.
Robert's style of bull riding
is confident
I get tapped off
Tapped off means you get in time with the animal
I get in time with the animal
quicker than an average cowboy
Well, I used to
The average cowboy will sit there and wait and wait
While they're sitting and waiting I'm already feeling it
and I'm jump for jump
both of my legs come up
When you feel something is right
it's right
The first time I got into a chute with a bull
when that gate latch opened up
it was like it went in a slow motion
but it went in a fast motion
Everything was a blur
And then all of a sudden you're on the ground and you're going
"This is cool, I want to do this again."
Whoo, now
bull's weights
eleven, twelve, fifteen hundred pounds would be your smallest bulls.
You've got those bulls like that Mississippi Hippy
Now this bull longer than a standard SUV
Fed right, bred right
they outweigh this little car
To land a certain way every time
and come back in that same motion
over and over again
that's athletic stuff
They all got their own little twerking
There's not supposed to be a bull that can't be rode
or a cowboy that can't be thrown
And the only way you're going to work that out
is to get on his ass two or three times
You're riding this bull in your dreams before you actually get on it
My worst injury would be my cracked sternum
That's small compared to a lot of these guys
breaking necks, breaking backs
A bull stepped on my right calf
There was just a hole in my leg
My buddies got a fish hook
They closed that hole
Stopped the leaking
I've got a pin in my jaw
right side of my face been crushed
Femur
bruising
It's part of the game
I don't want people who know him
the legendary bull rider Robert Mimms
I don't want them to look at me like
oh, she made him quit
I don't want that
He laughs at me, and jokes and teases
but it's all real, you know, that's what he does
That's his life
to just be relaxed, enjoy what you have
What God gave you and stop stressing
stop being somebody who you're not
I can be myself
This man right here
helped me love myself for who I am
I don't have to
get all frilly in make up and fancy clothes
This is me
He's got a heart of gold
and it scares me to death
My worst fear is that's how we're going to lose him
is by a bull
You've got different colored athletes out here now
riding bulls, running barrels, the whole nine yards
They're starting to give these guys credit for what they're doing
instead of the color of their skin
That's been the biggest change I've seen
since me going to East Texas
and couldn't win nothing but second place
You take like when I moved to Montana
this is in the late nineties
I would have people come up to me and rub against me
instead of saying hello
I knew they was rubbing against me to feel my black skin
To see if it would come off
I just laughed my ass off
"Nah, that shit ain't going to come off
Wait a minute
Ahh, look at the palm of my hands."
This world is changing
You can either change with it or stay behind
Live your life
and treat people like you want to be treated
You're always going to have that knot head
I'm sorry he's going to always be there
Sometimes you've got to fight
I was a fighter growing up
I loved to fight
I'd rather walk away from him today
I don't turn my back on you
but I will walk away
Robert don't take everybody up the road
It was a blessing that he took me
It took me two whole years
to finally figure out why he was hauling me up the road
I've got a gift
It's something he sees in me, that I don't see in myself
Being a bull rider, there's a lot to it
It's just not getting on bulls every day
or just going to the bar
with your straw hat on and your belt buckle
There's more to it, you've got to really want to do it
Any second or any moment it could be your last bull ride
It could be your last day on this earth
Hell, riding bulls
has given me the opportunity to see the world
I've got some damn good friends out of this here
I've met people I would never meet before
speaking a language I still don't understand
But I will call them my friends
Rodeo's been around
ever since them two ranching boys
figured they could outride each other on horseback
Bull riding's going to be around forever
we've just got to get more kids to want to do it
I mean that's it, you've got to
develop your body and your mind
to do what we do
Any Joe Blow can get on
but Joe Blow ain't going to stay there