When Jesse Bail hopped onto his assigned bucking horse, this one named No Date Kate, the La Fiesta de los Vaqueros announcer paid him the ultimate compliment.
“The only problem he has,” Wayne Brooks said, “is he makes it look too easy.”
By the time Bail hopped off the horse after completing the eight seconds of saddle-bronc riding, he found out he only scored a 74. The numbers were good enough to finish in Friday’s top five, but won’t get him into Sunday’s final.
In saddle-bronc riding, half of the score goes to the horse, the other half to the rider. This one was no fault of the rider — he rode just fine.
“It started good,” Bail said. “My horse weakened pretty bad so I didn’t get the points I was looking for, but it felt good. It felt good.”
Bail has been doing this long enough to know that it’s just on to the next one.
Almost 15 years ago, the Billings Gazette in Montana published an article about Bail saying he was “looking like rodeo’s next superstar.”
At just 21 years old, he already was so accomplished as a bull and saddle-bronc rider that when he was asked what his favorite accomplishment was, he responded “I can’t pick a favorite. It seems like I get to winning one thing, and I like that the best. Then I start winning at another, and I like that the best.”
Oh, to be young.
“Shoot, that seems like yesterday,” Bail said. “Time flies. I can’t believe I’ve been going that long. I wish I was 20 again. I wouldn’t do nothing different. I feel like I’ve had a good career.”
Even now, at age 36, Bail is hard-pressed to list his favorite accomplishment.
He has qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas 12 times. In the stretch from 2000 until he retired from bull riding after the 2011 season, Bail was both a six-time national qualifier in bronc riding (2001-03, 2006-07, 2011) and in bull riding (2000-04, 2009).
“Every time you make the finals is pretty awesome,” Bail said, “and feels like the first time every year you make it.”
He hasn’t qualified for the NFR since then.
Rodeo is like most sports in that the clock of your career winds down much faster than a “normal” profession. Bail is one of the oldest competitors in his event. He’s an elder statesman amongst 20-year-olds.
He’s still doing just fine — as recently as 2015, he ranked No. 27 in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world standings.
“I quit riding bulls a few years ago when my body made me stop pretty much, so broncs I’ve been feeling good on,” he said. “I feel like I can beat whoever, so I’ll just go until I don’t feel like I can, I guess.”
After failing to qualify for the finals, Bail headed back to Camp Crook, South Dakota, to spend the next week with his family. Then, he’ll head to Houston for the next competition.
The oldest saddle bronc national qualifier, Billy Etbauer, was 46 years old when he made it to Las Vegas in 2009. Bail doesn’t know if he’ll last that long, but he doesn’t plan on hanging it up anytime soon.
“When I was 20, 21 years old, I never thought I’d be old,” Bail said. “Here it is already, and yeah it’s a different feeling, but there’s a bunch of good kids coming around, and it makes it a lot of fun meeting new people.
“I’ll just go until I don’t feel like I can, I guess.”
