It takes a certain kind of crazy to want to be a bullfighter, and usually that crazy is found smack dab in the middle of the 17th and 18th chromosomes. It’s gotta be inherited, you see, because you don’t just wake up out of nowhere wanting to throw yourself between another man and a 2,000-pound animal.
For two of the three bullfighters in Tucson for La Fiesta De Los Vaqueros Tucson Rodeo, that’s their story, and it’s a good one: Dusty Tuckness and Wacey Munsell both come from good stock, as they say around these parts.
But Nathan Harp found bullfighting, it didn’t find him.
And now he finds himself about nine feet in the air, heels over head, courtesy of a hook from a bull named Spin Cycle. First Spin Cycle bucks off rider Guy Nordahl, then he charges at Tuckness and connects, flicking him in the air like a guy flicks a toothpick, and then he sets his sights on Harp.
It is a frightening moment, and the crowd is stunned.
Harp smacks the ground, pops right back up and smiles.
Remember, he chose this.
•••
“We were due for a wreck,” Munsell says back in the Justin Sports Medicine trailer a short while later, as Harp begins to clean the paint from his face.
This is Day 8 of the Tucson Rodeo, the fifth day of performances, and until now, the bullfighters have stared down the massive beasts and won. But as Munsell alluded, it’s not an “if” if the bull will have his day, it’s a “when.”
Tuckness and Harp will emerge unscathed, even after Harp takes another hook from a bull later on , this one only a love tap.
“The bulls will teach you a lot,” he said. “Like today, I learned what didn’t work.”
At 25 and in the fourth year of his PRCA card, Harp is still a relative newcomer in a sport where most participants have had a rope in hand since the womb. He fell for rodeo as a child back in Oklahoma and competed every so often, though his mother forbade him to ride bulls.
He tried out bullfighting at 16, careful not to get caught by a football coach who wanted his players focused solely on the gridiron, and by the time his high school football days were over , the former linebacker and tight end traded in his helmet for a cowboy hat.
“I really just loved it,” he said. “I loved the rodeo, and I loved the bullfighter. I always wanted to do it. After football, I needed something to fill that void, and it just took off.”
He didn’t have the natural training that comes with being behind the chutes since age 10, so Harp devoted his time to the practice pen and the film room. After competing in and winning several freestyle bullfighting competitions — picture the end of the rodeo, when a bull is let free in the arena — he started to develop a reputation. He eventually caught the eye of stock contractor Bennie Beutler, who has used him before and recommended him to Tucson Rodeo general manager Gary Williams.
Tuckness, a multiple-time PRCA bullfighter of the year, made a call, as well. The two — Tuckness and Harp — have worked extensively the last couple years and have spent most of the winter together, coming off six performances in Odessa and 34 in Fort Worth, Texas.
“When Dusty called, I’d already talked to Bennie, and he said Nathan’s good, he’d have my vote,” Williams said. “When Dusty called, I said the decision has been made, but you just reinforced it. When they recommend someone, I listen. I’d be foolish not to.”
•••
Speaking of foolish, let’s get back to bullfighting.
This is a dangerous profession, and a serious one, if you don’t let the face paint fool you. They’re called rodeo clowns, but try calling one of them that to their face.
These are professional athletes, and in their down time this week during slack competition, they once again worked out with the University of Arizona football team.
One of the reasons Harp has succeeded so quickly is his athleticism, yes, but also his studiousness and professionalism. Tuckness and Munsell run a tight ship, and they respect the sport and its athletes, human and animal, greatly.
“They don’t get any better than these guys here,” Beutler said. “They’re young, they’re aggressive and they know what it takes. The bullriders will tell you the same thing.”
Added Nordahl, the lucky (unlucky?) dude who battled Spin Cycle: “When you see them around, you definitely know you can hang on a little longer. It makes their job a little tougher, and they know that. You can kind of lay it all out on the line.”
So while Harp may be a newcomer to Tucson, he certainly is no rookie.
He has years left in this, he says, though he adds that he wants to go out on top. He admits he’s not quite there yet. “Wacey and Dusty, they’re the pinnacle, the top. I feel like I’m not there, but I’m close to there. I’m not 1,000 steps away, but I’m not two steps away. Close. Close, I can see the top.”
Munsell cuts him off, though. This is a team, and Munsell has the utmost faith in both his partners.
“The guy I want out there is someone I ain’t gotta second-guess,” he said. “Someone I know they’re gonna do their job. A great guy is just someone you don’t have to worry about.”
And he didn’t.
Don’t forget: Munsell was the only one of them who wasn’t tossed.
Back in the trailer a half-hour later, they were still talking about it, and laughing. Wasn’t but a scrape, and it was fun.
Harp tries to quote Ernest Hemingway but falls short, so Munsell looks it up.
“Bullfighting is the only art in which the artist is in danger of death and in which the degree of brilliance in the performance is left to the fighter’s honor,” he wrote in “Death in the Afternoon.”
Harp smiles and nods.
“Yeah, that one.”
He fits in around here just fine.
