by Terry Lidral
McCoy Ranch’s Ridin Solo just loves to buck. From the time that the bull arrived at the McCoy Ranch in Lane, Oklahoma in 2018 as a 2-year-old, Cord McCoy knew he had all the skills to be something special.
Ridin Solo was raised by Curtis Peoples of Ardmore, Oklahoma and comes from the Peoples breeding program built over the course of 6 or 7 generations of developing good genetics. McCoy is proud of the work that Peoples has done to produce this talented bull.
“This is a big story for small breeders,” McCoy said with pride. “Curtis Peoples has been working for several generations of bucking bulls to produce an outstanding athlete. And Ridin’ Solo is an amazing athlete.”
“Ridin Solo had everything that he needed to be a bucking bull when he arrived at the ranch,” said Cord McCoy, talking about his PBR superstar. “He had talent and he started bucking right off. He had all that from day one.”
Ridin Solo’s daddy was injured by fighting other bulls. So, when Peoples saw the potential in his calf, he penned the young bull separately to prevent like behavior. He is still penned by himself and that’s how he got his name Ridin Solo.
Ridin Solo had a lot of attitude and had no interest in the process it took to get to the bucking part.
“He just wanted to start early. He didn’t want to hold still to get the dummy on. All he wanted to do was buck,” McCoy told us about the early days of training. “He wouldn’t wait and he’d screw it up. It was a real challenge to get him to put it all together.”
McCoy has worked with a lot of bulls and he knows that sometimes it takes extra patience to get a bull to understand the process.
“We practiced with Ridin Solo every week. We worked him through the process,” explained McCoy. “We’d walk him in the chute and then let him stand. We’d put the dummy on his back and maybe sink it down. We’d flank him. But we didn’t let him buck. He had to understand what it took to get there.”
Denny McCoy talks about bucking bull training. Read the article here: https://buckingstocktalk.com/denny-mccoy-on-bucking-bull-training/
McCoy entered Ridin Solo in 2-year-old futurity events, but in the beginning, it wasn’t about winning.
“It was about getting consistency,” McCoy told us about teaching his talented bull how to be successful in competition. “It was about patience and letting him figure it out. If he was having trouble in the chute, I’d take the time to let him settle.”
“It might be an event that paid $20,000, but he still had to settle before I let him go,” he continued. “People wondered why I was taking so long. I had an idea of the finished product and I felt I was sitting on a gold mine. It wasn’t about the entry fee.”
Patience paid off and McCoy got consistency with his young bull, so much so that Ridin Solo earned the 2018 title of ABBI Futurity Champion.
Ridin Solo is a high-spirited animal and McCoy’s work wasn’t done even though his bull earned the ABBI championship. It has taken consistency on McCoy’s part and diligent planning to make it possible for Ridin Solo to be a long-term success.
“A bucking bull is bred to be rank and tough. But it’s like the difference between a street fighter and a boxer. A street fighter swings away wildly and is totally uncontrolled. A boxer is a trained athlete that controls the way he fights,” explained McCoy. “Ridin Solo had to calm down and slow down and be a bucking bull. He needed to learn to be like a trained boxer.”
But getting Ridin Solo to cooperate with the control process wasn’t easy. He’s a smart bull and knows to listen for the latch. Any sound from the latch and the bull was taking it as a signal to go.
“It took a team to get Ridin Solo to wait for the gate to get open,” said McCoy. “It was all about how and when to open the gate with this bull. If he heard the latch squeeze, he jumped. I worked with people to muffle the latch so it wouldn’t make any noise and to open the gate a certain way.”
McCoy has developed ways to keep Ridin Solo from trying to leave the chute too early. And they usually work.
“He still gets nervous in the chute, especially if a rider takes too long,” said McCoy. “We tie a rope over him so if he starts to rear he’ll hit his head. And we twist a rope around his neck that we pull off when the gate is full open. We don’t pull off the rope until the gate is out of the way. It’s our choice when he leaves the chute, not his. He’s responding to getting the rope off, not the sound of the latch.”
Ridin Solo has bucked exclusively in the PBR and his stats are impressive. He bucked in the ABBI Classic division as a 3-year-old and was chosen to buck at the PBR Finals that year. He ended up in the top 15 in that year’s Classic competition.
His average PBR score of 44.67 does not reflect his sensational start to the 2022 season. With his lowest bull score of 2022 at 45 points, he combined for a bull score of 46.25 with World Champion Jose Vitor Leme in the Express Ranch’s 15/15 Bucking Battle in a ride for the highlight reels. And, his most recent score is a massive 47.5 which currently ranks him #1 in the PBR.
Check out Ridin Solo’s PBR stats here: https://pbr.com/athletes/bulls/profile/13024691/ridinsolo
“He’s built like a thoroughbred,” McCoy told us of the 6-year-old bull who is just getting better. “He’s put on about 100 pounds since the PBR World Finals which makes him around 1500 pounds.”
“He’s always loved to buck,” continued McCoy. “At the ranch, he’ll be running and kicking and playing. He’ll be bucking 90 points in the pasture,” he laughed. “He loves people. At home you can brush all over his body. He’s cool that way.”
McCoy has been around the bucking bull business for a long time and he sees something really special in Ridin Solo.
“Every time I watch him buck, I think, ‘The world has got to see this bull.’ Ridin Solo brings excitement to the table every time the gate opens. We are so fortunate to see him every day of his life.”
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.
