by Terry Lidral
Phenom Genetic’s 911 Hy Test retired in December after his last out at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. Hy Test finished off his career with a buck-off of Jeff Askey in the 10th round of the 2020 WNFR. For Phenom Genetic’s Matt Scharping, it was a bittersweet moment.
“Hy Test is 11 years old,” said Scharping of the bull that he raised from a calf. “I always said I’d retire him when he told me it was time. He’d lost a step towards the end of the year and he was telling me it was time to be done.”
The year started out with Hy Test and Jess Lockwood combining for a score of 89 to win Round 1 at the 2020 UTB Chicago Invitational. Then, in September at Filer, Idaho, Hy Test put up some big numbers. His bull scores of 45, 43.5 and 44 combined with rides by Daylon Swearingen, Clayton Sellers and J.B. Mauney for ride scores of 91.5, 89 and 90 in that order.
It was after the event in Filer, Idaho that Scharping began to see a decline in Hy Test’s performance. And he knew it was time for the bull’s career to come to an end.
Scharping and Hy Test have a bonded history. Hy Test was one of the two bulls born in Scharping’s first calf crop. And he was the first bull Scharping ever entered into competition.
“I won my first buckle ever with Hy Test,” said Scharping of the landmark moment. “I entered him in a Midwest Bucking Bull Association 2-year-old futurity event. It was all new to me. I didn’t know what I was doing. He did it all by himself. I couldn’t believe it when Hy Test won the buckle. I didn’t even own a belt to put it on.”
Hy Test not only won that event, he went on to win the 2-year-old MBBA championship title for the year. That was when Scharping began to realize that he had a special bull.
“I didn’t know anything about bucking bulls when I started out,” Scharping admitted with a laugh. “Hy Test just did the same thing from day one. He succeeded in spite of me.”
Success for Hy Test has included the MBBA 2-Year-Old Futurity Championship, MBBA Classic Championship, the CBR Bucking Bull of the Year title, two trips to the WNFR and four trips to the PBR Finals.
“Any of those things would be a highlight in a bucking bull’s career,” said Scharping of his bull’s stellar accomplishments. “Hy Test did all of them. He’s bucked the same whether it was a dummy or a rider on his back,” he went on to say of the consistency that contributed to his bull’s long-term success.
Hy Test’s outstanding career included 93 outs on record with 38 rides. He was a bull that the bull riders liked to get on.
“One of the best memories of Hy Test’s career is that every cowboy wanted to get on him,” Scharping told us proudly. “I don’t know how much was won on him, but a lot of people won a lot of money. I know that Boudreaux Campbell made a lot of money on him in the CBR.”
In fact, in 2017, the year Hy Test was the CBR Bull of the Year, the bull was responsible for rider earnings of over $75,000. During that season, he had three 90 plus point rides (90, 90.5 and 91.5), the highest bull score (45.5 twice), and a stellar bull score average (44.375) for the 2017 CBR season. Hy Test and Boudreaux Campbell combined for two of the 90 point scores that were good for two CBR event wins. The bull took Travis Briscoe to the pay window for the largest purse of the regular CBR season and put Briscoe into position to qualify for the CBR Finals. And in The Finals, Hy Test combined with rider Juan Alonzo for a score of 90 points and a round win, showing the world just how good he really was.
Hy Test was bucking in the PBR at the age of 3 and went on to become one of the highly respected bulls on the Unleash The Beast Tour. He finished his PBR career with 55 events and 62 outs.
For Scharping, the length of Hy Test’s career and the success the bull has had at the top levels of competition are some major highlights of the bull’s career. But it’s the bull’s personality that has made Hy Test truly special.
“Hy Test is a pet and my daughter can get right on his back. He doesn’t like other bulls, but he likes people,” Scharping told us fondly of the bull he considers to be part of his family.
But Hy Test also had a job to do and that was to buck when a cowboy got on his back. When he felt the knees squeeze in the chute, he came out bucking.
“Guilherme Marchi had an ongoing battle with Hy Test. I love Guilherme, but I liked to tease him. I asked him why, if my daughter can ride Hy Test, why can’t you?” Scharping related the story with amusement.
Scharping credits Hy Test with much of the success of the Phenom Genetics program.
“Hy Test has done so much for us,” said Scharping. “He’s the reason that we got together with Jared Allen. That led to buying Air Time. Our program is what it is today because of Hy Test.”
The memories for Scharping include Hy Test’s love of the game. He also will remember the enjoyment Hy Test got from being at events and being around people.
“Hy Test has so much heart. And he loved getting on the truck. If the truck went without him, he’d throw a tantrum. I’m not sure how he will react now that he is retired,” Scharping said with a sigh
As for whether Hy Test will spend his retirement out in the pasture on cows, it’s not yet known.
“I am very selective about the bulls I use in my breeding program. I’m looking to improve my calf crop every year,” explained Scharping. “I’ll put Hy Test with a hand-picked group of cows and see what he produces.”
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.
