November 30, 2018
by Terry Lidral
Bucking bull 44 Custer is making his name known on the PRCA circuit as one of the stars of Flying U Rodeo. In June of this year, Custer joined up with bull rider Riker Carter for a score of 86 points at the Xtreme Bulls event in Reno, Nevada, helping Riker go on to win the event.
Cindy Rosser of Flying U Rodeo is happy with Custer’s performance.
“We raise ninety-eight percent of our own bucking bulls,” Rosser told us. “But from time to time, there’s a deal we can’t pass up.”
Custer was one of those bucking bulls that was too good of a deal to pass by. Rosser’s brother bought the bull at the 2017 Los Lunas sale sight unseen at the word of ProRodeo Hall of Fame bull rider Cody Custer.
“Cody told us we should buy this bull and so we took him at his word. It’s worked out well for us,” said Rosser.
But the road to becoming a major player in the Flying U Rodeo bucking bull herd was not a smooth or a predictable one for the bull that eventually ended up in the ranks of the PRCA.
Born on Reed Corder’s ranch in Texas, the bull who would eventually come to be known by his current name Custer held great promise as a weanling.
“That bull was the son of 77 Scout,” said Corder, 1998 PBR World Finals Event Champion, who bred and raised Custer on his ranch. “Scout has Hammertime, Oscar’s Velvet and Wolfman on his sire’s side and Automatic, Rafter 7 Miss Hattie and Moody Blues on the side of his dam.”
In 2012, Scout had 7 outs with an average bull score of 43.938. The only time he was ridden was for a round winning combined score of 88.75. Unfortunately, Scout broke his back in 2014 and his bucking career ended abruptly. Corder went on to use him as a sire and he got some good results, including the bull the Rossers bought on the word of Cody Custer.
“I bucked that bull once as a weanling,” said Corder. “He bucked hard and he showed potential. He bucked just like his daddy – one jump and then turn to the right.”
But during the drought, Corder ended up partnering on the young bull with a friend, Gene Fletcher, who was an experienced bull man. When the bull was bucked again, in the mind of Fletcher, the potential shown as a weanling was no longer there. It was determined after being worked by another experienced bull man that the bull to be known as Custer was not settled enough or powerful enough to make it on the big time circuit.
So, as a 2 year old, the bull was hauled by Cody Custer as a practice bull to use at clinics and bull riding schools. For a while, it seemed like the bull was in the right place.
“I hauled that bull to youth events when he was young,” Cody Custer told us. “For a while he was a good fit for the youth level. But then he got too strong for the young riders.”
Along with power came attitude and the bull Custer became too much to handle at the youth event level.
“That bull got mean and I couldn’t have him around young riders. He was going to hurt someone,” Cody Custer explained. “He’d also gotten strength and power as he grew up. Gene Fletcher saw him buck at a couple of amateur events I hauled him to. We agreed that the bull needed to be in the hands of someone who could take him somewhere that mattered. So, I called the Rossers and we put him in the sale at Los Lunas in April 2017.”
“Cody called us and told us that this was too good of a bull and he was too mean to train young bull riders,” said Cindy Rosser. “Cody said that this bull reminded him of a notoriously scary bull Flying U had in the 1980’s. I liked the sound of him.”
After the Rossers bought Custer at the sale, it took some time for him to adjust to life at the Flying U Ranch.
“It took Custer 6 months to acclimate to the Flying U bull herd. He was waspy at first,” Rosser said. “But now he’s good. I can sort him on horseback.”
And once he’d settled in, Custer started to show the potential that Reed Corder had seen that first time he’d bucked the bull as a weanling. Flying U is elated with his performance.
“He became a superstar,” Rosser praised her bull. “He was only ridden once in the 2018 season and that was for a round win in Reno.”
Cody Custer compares the bull that was sold to the Rossers to the bull’s daddy, Scout.
“He’s a spitting image of his daddy,” remarked Cody Custer. “He bucks like him too.”
For Reed Corder, the success of the bull he bucked early on does not surprise him.
“I don’t buck them a lot when they’re little,” Corder told us. “I let them grow up and I train them. They don’t always buck right away.”
Now that Custer has gotten his shot at living the dream, it seems he’s out to prove to the world that he belongs in the big leagues. And so far, he’s doing a very good job of that.
Author: Terry Lidral
Terry Lidral is a western writer/journalist who lives in Idaho. She is the publisher and editor of the online magazine Bucking Stock Talk and the online magazine Western Living Journal. Her publishing credits include Storyteller for Real American Cowboy Magazine, writing feature articles for Humps N Horns Magazine as well as a wide variety of national and international web sites, historical magazines and news publications. She is known for her "up close and personal" profiles of celebrities and industry moguls such as NPR's Tom Bodett; PBR's Wiley Petersen and D.H. Page, PRCA's Sammy Andrews, Cindy Rosser and Julio Moreno to name a few. She has been applauded for her way of making a personal connection between her readers and her subjects. She indulges in her love of rodeo by serving as an associate board member for the Caldwell Night Rodeo. She is also an accomplished trainer and handler in dog agility. Her shelties Amelie and Milo are titled in NADAC, USDAA and AKC.
