They’ve been two of PBR’s rankest bulls since the mid-2000s. And fans attending the Built Ford Tough Invitational Powered by F-150 EcoBoost this weekend will get the chance to see them up close.

Voodoo Child and Chicken on a Chain will be among the 24 bulls Jeff Robinson will bring from his ranch in Western North Carolina to Tampa, Fla. World Champion Bull contender I’m a Gangster will also be there, as will Highway 12 and RMEF Gunpowder & Lead.

Voodoo Child, 9, is a two-time (2007-08) PRCA Bucking Bull of the Year, who has a 94.8 percent career buckoff percentage. Chicken on a Chain, 10, was 2007 PBR World Champion Bull and has bucked off riders 75.4 percent of the time. Voodoo Child has appeared in the past four PBR World Finals, and Chicken on a Chain the past five.

“My hope is that they’re going to be strong and looking good and make the Finals one more time – both of ’em,” said PBR Livestock Director Cody Lambert, who selects the bulls for the Las Vegas-hosted PBR Finals. “But if they don’t, then they won’t be at the Finals. If the Finals were today, Chicken on a Chain would be in and Voodoo Child would be very questionable.”

Robinson, the reigning PBR Stock Contractor of the Year, owns Voodoo Child with Bennie Beutler and Cathy McNeely. He co-owns Chicken on a Chain with Mike Tedesco and Larry the Cable Guy. The sentimental favorites have each bucked at the same five Built Ford Tough events this season: New York, Indianapolis, Arlington, Texas, St. Louis and Chicago. Both have bucked off three of the five riders who have attempted them.

“Voodoo’s really kind of showing his age a little more than what Chicken is, and Chicken’s older, but he’s had one off out,” Robinson said. “It happens to all of ’em.”

One Robinson bull who will not be in Tampa is Moon. Out of action since January with a left stifle injury, he received a bull score of 29 points last week in Kansas City, Mo.

“Moon had another terrible trip,” Lambert said. “He’d been rested for a long time and had a clean bill of health. He was brought back and he didn’t buck a lick. You could tell that he either physically has something wrong with him or he doesn’t want to buck anymore.”

Moon is back in North Carolina, and Robinson said he’s not sure what’s wrong with his 5-year-old.

“I wish I had an answer for you, but I don’t,” he said. “Something’s sure bothering him.”

Moon, in his only other appearance on the 2011 Built Ford Tough Series, was marked 43.5 points in Doug Taliaferro.

“That’s why I don’t think he’s lost his desire to buck,” Robinson said, “because he was hurting then and still Marchi was 88 and three-quarters on him.”

Robinson said Moon will continue to receive veterinary care and is hopeful he can return to the Built Ford Tough Series.

“I’d like to see what he does the next 60, 90 days,” he said. “I’ll get him [entered in] some Touring Pros.”

Lambert, who called Moon “a great bull last year,” thinks there is something physically wrong with the animal Robinson bought from Gene Baker just before the 2010 World Finals.

“I think there’s a physical issue [why] he can’t buck anymore,” Lambert said. “I don’t know what it is, but they’re checking him out with a vet and stuff, because the reason that Jeff bought that bull is because he thought he’d be a contender for World Champion Bull. He didn’t buy him because he thought he’d be good enough to stay on tour.”

— by Chris McManes