Kent Cox can’t remember the name of the bull that forever changed his life. But like any good bull man would, he said, “I can tell you his number is D Double Bar.”

This particular bull also had big horns.

It was the fall of 1995, and Cox was competing at an indoor Touring Pro event in Wichita Falls, Texas, when he got hung up and the bull hit the right side of his face with a horn. By the time the bull fighters got him loose, Cox’s right eye had swollen shut, and he couldn’t spit his mouthpiece out.

“I thought, well, shoot, I broke my jaw again,” he called.

Cox did more than break his jaw. He shattered his eye socket, cheek bone and nasal cavity. But he wasn’t knocked unconscious from the wreck.

“Evidently I had blood coming out of every hole in my head,” Cox said. “I walked to the ambulance, got in, and about the last thing I remember for two or three days was I was laying on a table in the emergency room and told the nurse, ‘I’m fixing to be sick.’”

They were prepping him for what would be the first of five surgeries. Most of the blood from his head had run down into his stomach, causing him to feel ill.

“The last thing I saw was a big pool of blood on the floor,” said Cox, whose only concern when he finally woke was having the catheter removed as soon as possible. He also he had his friend Randy Thornton contact Dr. Tandy Freeman.

Once he felt well enough to travel from Wichita Falls to Dallas, he went to Freeman, who recommended the best doctors he knew to reconstruct his face.

After four more surgeries and 13 inserted plates, he was scheduled for a sixth operation, because the plastic surgeon had said he “wasn’t quite symmetric.”

He told them, “I’m done.”

Cox was referring to the surgeries, but could have just as easily been talking about his bull riding career.

He did make an effort to return, but he was never the same.

The bull rider in him isn’t willing to say the wreck “broke the egg” in him, but it definitely started to crack. As much as he wanted to get on bulls, if he found himself in a bind, he’d hesitate and never could make a big move to get back into the middle.

All he’d ever been was a bull rider. Now he was 30 years old, looking in the mirror and asking himself, “Who am I?”

The making of a bull man

Cox was born in Floyd County near Plainview in the Texas panhandle.

His parents Dwight and Cheryl split when he was young. His mother married Randy Lawson, and the three of them moved to Abilene. Dwight was a saddle bronc rider, and Kent grew up going with his father to rodeos.

He rode calves and steers when he was younger, but when it was time to move up to junior bulls, his father wouldn’t let him. Dwight had had a few friends die in bull riding accidents and didn’t want the same fate befall his son, so at 14, Kent started saddle bronc riding like his old man.

His father died a year later.

“After he passed, then I got to knowing Monty (Samford),” Cox said, “and he had a practice pen over at the house.”

In the late ’80s and early ’90s, Cox was spending more time with Samford, who would buy practice bulls from a sale barn. Cox would get on, and if they bucked, Samford would keep them around for a year or so and then sell them for a profit.

It was a great way for Cox to continue developing his skills as a bull rider, but it also proved to be his first experience with handling bulls. When Kent left for college – he attended Vernon Regional Junior College – he took a set of practice bulls with him, two of which ended up going to the National Finals Rodeo.

Cox describes himself as an “all right” bull rider, but “not real good.”

He was good enough to make it to the highest level in the PBR, and said his best year would have been 1995, until it was cut short “when I had my face caved in.”

Change of plans

Cox loves everything about the sport of bull riding.

But after his injury, he still saw it through the eyes of a bull rider, and said it was hard to admit that his riding career was over.

“I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “When that fire inside of you goes out and you don’t want to get on bulls anymore – and I see it all the time – you don’t know what else to do, so you keep getting on.”

In 1998, he went out west with Samford, who was trading Julio Moreno some Houdini heifers for White Water heifers.

Cox cared for all of Samford’s cattle and bucked his bulls until Samford’s kids were old enough to work the ranch.

In 2005, when the futurity competitions got started, Moreno wanted to send some of his bulls to Texas, so he contacted Samford, but he told Moreno he was better off having Cox handle his 2-year-old bulls.

“Everyone knows Monty for all the bulls he’s raised, but Monty is actually a union pipeline welder, and he’s gone all the time,” Cox said. “They called me and sent me that first set of bulls, and Charlie (Bullware) was one of them.

In California, there just weren’t enough events for young bulls, and it wasn’t cost-effective to haul them back and forth every week, much less every month.

Charlie won second at the futurity finals that year, and it made sense to keep him in the same environment, especially given the success Cox was having, so in 2007, Charlie Bullware and Troubadour went back to Texas to stay with Cox.

“We just kind of rocked on from there,” Cox said.

It’s not just the nutrition and exercise program Cox gives them at the ranch, but the special attention paid on the road that helps create success. Cox said young bulls tend to stress out when they’re on the road, so he keeps a watchful eye on them and likes to schedule shorter trips rather than long hauls.

There’s a trust factor between Moreno and Cox, so it only made sense that Bushwacker would become another of Cox’s projects.

The prodigy

Cox and his wife Gina live less than six miles north of Dublin, Texas.

They both work caring for the bulls. As recently as five years ago, Cox said there were plenty of times when their bulls ate better than they did – his monthly feed bill is right around $10,000. In fact, they often worked two or three jobs in addition to working cattle.

Bushwacker came to Texas as a 2-year-old, and although he “won a little bit of money in the futurity events,” he never showed signs of developing into a World Champion Bull contender.

Almost from the time Bushwacker arrived in Texas, he had the up-and-down kick, but according to Cox it wasn’t until he was 4 or 5 that he finally turned back.

“You could see he wanted to buck,” said Cox.

Cox thinks Bushwacker’s development had to do with putting a real rider on his back. He recalled the same being true for Troubadour when he was 2, but in neither case did he see much potential in either bull.

Cox compared Bushwacker then and now to going to a high school reunion.

“How many times do you see someone in high school and they’re all gangly and ugly?” he asked. “Then five years later, you’re like, ‘Holy smokes.’”

Today Bushwacker is widely thought of as the top bull in the world.

He bounces off his front feet like there are springs in them, and follows that up with a great big kick.

It’s the bounce that Cox thinks makes Bushwacker as difficult as he’s been. And he’s as fast as he’s even been at any point in his career.

Cox added, “I think he’s capable of getting better.”

Cox said he’d love for a rider to stay on him for 5 seconds or more, so everyone could see him once he’s warmed up. He said if that were to happen, the great bull would bring it even more the next time out. As anxious as he gets when they crack the gate, he thinks Bushwacker would realize he needs to “stick in gear.”

“I’m definitely very proud, very blessed and very privileged to be able to haul that bull without a doubt,” he said. “I get pretty nervous.”

Looking down the road

“I’m just a glorified truck driver and feed man,” joked Cox.

In addition to Bushwacker, he’s hauling Ranger Pride, co-owns Back Bender, and until recently was hauling Speckled Ivory until Circle T Ranch bought him. He’s had others. There have been times when contractors have sent him bulls to observe, and Cox had to be honest with his assessment.

“I’m not afraid to tell them their bull just isn’t good enough,” said Cox.

“That’s my job,” he said, “to make them bulls the best they can be.”

Chad Berger talked to him before buying Big Tex. Cox had hauled the under-appreciated bull for Brian Agnew and really liked his power. Cox thought he not only bucked well, but was stronger than he had been given credit for.

“He had his front feet off the ground and would kick the lights out,” said Cox.

That’s one characteristic Cox looks for: what he calls “kicking the lights out.”

“The way they look, the way they move – light on their feet,” he explained. “They’ve got to be athletes. You’ll see these big heavy-footed things that couldn’t jump over a beer can if you went to chasing them. Then there are bulls that are bouncing off the wall and they’re just athletes.”

At this point, he’s become one of the most well-respected bull men involved with the PBR.

His goal is to keep raising and hauling bulls of BFTS caliber.

To him, a good bull is one that a rider can be 90 or better on, and “make a living” by winning the round. He’ll continue to take in bulls sent his way, and has been using his knowledge and experience to start putting together a pen of his own.

“I think it would be really, really special to raise one,” he said. “Like I’ll probably never raise one as good as Bushwacker, but that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to. That’s my goal.”

Saturday night his goal is for Bushwacker to establish himself as the clear-cut favorite to win World Champion Bull.

— by Keith Ryan Cartwright