Tahonta relaxing at the Big Bend Ranch
January 28, 2018
Tahonta is ranked one of the top ten bucking bulls of all time. No small feat in a sport rich in great bovine athletes. He’s a two-time PRCA Bucking Bull of the Year – 2003 and 2004. That puts him in the company of the likes of Cowtown, Bodacious, Skoal’s Pacific Bell, Voodoo Child and Harry Vold’s 777.
Nicknamed The Golden Touch, the big yellow bull from Big Bend Rodeo set himself apart by having a career record of 49 buck-offs out of 52 attempts with a perfect buck-off record against left handers. One of those three rides was by Jason McClain in Round 2 at the 2002 NFR that was scored 91 points. Pro Bull Stats has Tahonta ranked sixth all time with an historical ranking of fourth. His career average was an astounding 45 plus points.
Not bad for a bull Big Bend Rodeo’s Chad Hutsell describes as a “fluke.”
“Tahonta is the only calf we got out of the bull named Tahonta’s Back,” said Hutsell. “That bull came from Gerlitz out of Canada and he had a strange spelling to his name. (He was named after a chief of a local tribe in Canada. The original spelling of the name has been lost.) We got him just to buck.”
But Tahonta’s Back ended up siring one of the best bulls to ever hit the professional bull riding circuit.
“We weren’t going to breed to that bull, but we had a short time to breed our rodeo cows,” explained Hutsell. “Our top bulls were gone to bull ridings and he was the only one left.”
Tahonta’s Back had been left behind because he had been banned from bucking at rodeos for being dangerous outside the chutes.
“He was outlawed from the PRCA for being too mean,” Hutsell told us. “ So, we used him as a clean-up bull.”
Tahonta was a surprise. All the rodeo calves had been born on the Big Bend Ranch and the cows were turned out to pasture.
“Tahonta was late. He never had a brand. His dam was a Katisch cow. We didn’t know she was pregnant and then there he was in the pasture.”
Like all the Big Bend bulls, Tahonta started bucking at the age of 3. He was a strong, athletic bull with attitude.
“He was a true athlete,” said Hutsell. “He was so powerful. He’d leave the chutes and come around the corner, kick and rip those guys right out of there”
It was this power and strength that won Tahonta the coveted PRCA Bucking Bull of the Year title bestowed upon him by the bull riders he beat.
“In that era (when Tahonta won), the riders picked the biggest, strongest dude,” Hutsell stated. “Tahonta was one of the last strong ones.”
Tahonta loved his job as a bucking bull.
Hutsell told us, “When the anthem started playing and the gates started rattling, that bull knew it was time to wake up and get to work. It was game on.”
And Tahonta played the game with attitude. Luckily for the riders and bull fighters, he didn’t get the full mean of his daddy.
“You darned sure wanted to watch him,” Hutsell laughed. “He wasn’t like a lot of other top bulls when they get older want to come up and be scratched. He would eat next to you, but you sure didn’t want to touch him.”
Tahonta was a big bull. And he liked to eat. He ended up getting injured and had to be retired.
“Tahonta was a big bull,” Hutsell said. “When we sent him to The Finals in 2005, he probably weighed 2200 pounds. He was so much out of shape. You have to watch when feeding bulls when they’re not on the road. They do get heavy.”
The injury Tahonta sustained ended the great bull’s career. Hutsell sent him out for treatment and tried to buck him again. But, for the sake of the bull, he was retired in 2006.
As a sire, Tahonta has produced offspring who have bucked in the professional ranks. The bulls
Tahonta’s Shadow, Paycheck and Bad Blake were all PBR Finals bulls with averages of 43 plus points.
“The last bull we have out of Tahonta is Tahonta Junior. He’s so strong. He got his daddy’s power and looks,” Hutsell told us.
At the age of 15, the bull called The Golden Touch returned to the pasture where he was born, laid down and passed on.
Hutsell tells the story. “Tahonta was out in the big pasture. He went over and tore down the fence. He came right to the house in the little pasture where he was born, laid down and died. We buried him there.”
Looking back, Hutsell describes that only calf of the Canadian bull Tahonta’s Back as a stroke of good luck. It’s a good bet that the 49 riders Tahonta bucked off in his career would not agree with that.
by Terry Lidral
for Bucking Stock Talk
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.
