being
“The best thing about
lling
a pro bull rider is trave
seearound the world and
ces, and
ing so many cool pla
. Knowing
meeting new people
who can
that the only person
y eyes
let me down is me, m
ustralian
are on winning an A
coming a
title and one day be
rider”.
world champion bull
Troy’s future plans involve travelling back over to compete in the Built Ford Tough Series and Touring Pro events. Over the last decade only a few Aussies have qualified for the world finals, but more
recently (in the last 2 years) there are greater opportunities for good Australian riders to qualify for
the world finals. “There were 5 Australians competing at the world finals last year out of a total of 35
from the Professional Bull Riding Australia Tour” he said.
There are quite a few Australians in the world rankings, and Troy told us that competition is always
fierce for Australian riders to make it to the world championships. “It’s not about beating the guy
next to you, it’s about beating the bull” he explained.” If you fall off you get no score, so the only
real competition is the bull”.
Every bull seems to have its own legend and story attached to it, Chainsaw was one of Australia’s
most famous bucking bulls. Only nine riders ever scored on him and he won the Australian national
title of Bull of the Year a world record eight times during 1987 to 1994.
We asked if there was a particular favourite bull for Troy. “I honestly don’t have one, only because
there are so many challenging Bulls. If they brought Bushwhacker out of retirement I would give him
a crack, every bull rider wants to ride the best bull!” Bushwacker the Bull (who has over 41,000 fans
on Facebook) owns the longest streak of consecutive buck-offs, (42), in PBR history. The lone man to
remain aboard Bushwacker for eight ticks was J.B. Mauney in August 2013.
Being a professional Bull Rider might not be a fulltime job for Troy Wilkinson, but he has certainly
dedicated his life to it.