Rodeo bullfighting ‘ain’t for the faint of heart’

CEDAR RAPIDS - Being a rodeo bullfighter 'ain't for the faint of heart,” said Dustin Nelson, who has spent 14 years in that particular line of work, adding that 'you've got to be willing to die for a bull rider” that you may or may not know.

Nelson, from Bernard, and his partner, Zack Livingston, from Marshall, Mo., will be out in front of the chutes fighting bulls and protecting bull riders tonight when the World's Toughest Rodeo winds up its 32nd appearance at the U.S. Cellular Center.

Chute gates are set to open at 7:30 p.m. for shootout-style competition in bareback, saddle bronc, and bull riding along with cowgirls barrel racing.

Nelson said a bullfighter's job is simply to get a bull's attention at the end of an eight-second or less ride so the bull rider can get safely to the fence. What he considers the easiest way to do that is where the 'faint of heart” quote comes into play.

'The easiest way,” Nelson said, 'is to get as close to the bull's head as possible so he sees you instead of the cowboy.”

To decide when to make his move, Nelson has to watch both the bull and rider carefully during the ride, which sometimes ends in a split second or so right outside the chute.

While his goal is to get the rider safely to the fence, Nelson considers the fence a place he can be thrown into and injured by a bull. Therefore, he employs a different strategy.

'I stay in the open and make a lot of circles,” he said. 'Eventually the bull will quit you.”

He also tries not to pick up on a bull's particular tendencies.

'They get into a rhythm and then do something different,” he said. 'I try not to remember any of it.”

Nelson said the most dangerous parts of a bull, to a bullfighter, are the bull's head and horns. Rodeo officials blunt the horns by trimming them down to the size of a 50-cent coin.

Nelson's career has not been without injury. He has broken ribs, fingers and his right ankle as well as blown out his knee. And, if you ask him about his teeth, he'll take out the top row and say 'none of these are mine.”

Despite injury, Nelson sticks to what he considers the 'right way” to save cowboys' lives.

'There ain't no point in doing it, if you don't do it right,” he said.