PUEBLO, Colo. – J.B. Mauney and Bushwacker are set to meet for the 13th time of their storied careers on Thursday night in Santa Barbara, California, at the Fiesta Stock Horse Show & Rodeo.
Prior to the Touring Pro Division event, which begins at 10:30 p.m. ET and can be watched exclusively on PBR LIVE, Mauney took part in a teleconference on Monday afternoon.
AUDIO: Listen to the full teleconference here
Below are some highlights from the teleconference:
Mauney on having a potential game plan and his preparation for Thursday:
“I am going to try to look at him like I have never been on him before, just when I tie my hand in there make sure it’s there for 8 seconds. The thing about him is you have to be a little smarter than him.â€
“I look at every bull the same whether I am getting on in the practice pen or whether it’s at the World Finals or if I am getting on Bushwacker. I try to keep it simple. As long as you do all the basic steps that you are supposed to do on a bull every single time then you should ride him. So he is no different than any other bull, he is just a little better than the rest of them, but you still have to ride him the same way.â€
“I don’t really have a game plan ever when I show up to a bull riding except for one thing and that is to stay on.â€
“Once you get to this level, and especially with a bull like Bushwacker, when you nod your head it’s got to be automatic. If you got to think about it, you are getting up off the ground because he has done slammed you. Once you show up and get on him you better have your ducks in a row and be ready to go. It’s got to be all reaction. Bam bam bam, you can’t think about anything. The way I am going to go at it, I am going to tie my hand in there, slide up and nod and not going to turn loose until I hear the whistle blow.â€
“Over the years, I have figured out if I try to set a game plan or a trap for a bull I usually get caught in it. I just try and go with a clear mind like I have never seen him before. It is just another bull to get on."
Mauney on the use of past videos of his rides
“I don’t watch any of them. If I go to an event, when I get home I will watch it, but as soon as I get done watching I delete it. The past is in the past and all you can do is look to tomorrow. I watched when Mike (Lee) got on him, but I really wasn’t watching how (Bushwacker) was bucking or anything like that. I just wanted to see how Mike done on him."
Mauney on Bushwacker’s last out against Mike Lee:
“He looks like the same old Bushwacker. He is just smart. He is real smart. He is strong. What he did with Mike is he kind of set him up, got him reared back and when he felt him get reared back he just jerked him into his hand and went away from him. That is the hard part about him, he is so big and strong and he is smart too. That is a bad combination when you are trying to ride him.â€
Mauney on his health heading into the matchup:
I feel good. I went to Calgary and did OK up there, not to awful bad. Nothing was to sore and I am ready to go.â€
“I feel pretty good right now. Good to go. I am ready to get on him again and hopefully it goes my way again.â€
Mauney on if there is a difference between choosing to face Bushwacker at an event vs. facing him during a pre-determined matchup
“It is the same difference. Before we even left for Tulsa I told her (Lexie) he was going to be there and he would be in the short round. I already had him on my mind. They called me a while back and asked me to do this deal and I said yeah because $25,000 bounty, as many times as he has thrown me off, I might as well. I have got on him for much less and considering he has thrown me off 11 of the 12 times. It is no different. I am ready to get on him. I would get on him today if he was standing here.â€
Mauney on Bushwacker’s upcoming retirement and if the two-time World Champion is still in his prime:
“I would say he is still on top of his game. He don’t quite leap as high as he used to. Bulls that last real long like him are bulls that are smart. As you can tell during the first half of this season, he don’t have to use all of his power to throw them off. He just uses his brains. You can tell, the first time I got on him he jumped up five-foot off the ground. He still will get that high, only if he has to. He is kind of a bull that only puts out so much effort as he needs to and usually it don’t take a whole lot of effort from him.â€
“Them retiring him at the end of this year, I think is a good idea. I’ve always said when I retire I want to go out on top and I don’t want to be one that hung around and wore out my welcome and couldn’t ride them two or three jumps. I figure if you retire him on top he will stay that way and that’s how everybody will remember him.â€
“It will be great. For me, I will be happy as can be because I won’t have to get on him again. Hopefully, I won’t be riding a whole, whole long time before all the Bushwacker babies come around because that will be a day when they all show up.â€
“A bull like him, as many times I have been on him, it was fun and still fun to get on him and my mentality is he was the perfect fit for me. Everybody thought he couldn’t be rode and I was going to get on him until I got him rode. When I finally did, I was like OK that’s it; well, and then the next week I picked him again. I guess my stubbornness come out a little bit, but I like to prove to myself more than anything that I can ride any bull out there. It would be great to get on him at the Finals the last time they buck him, but if I am not the one it will still be cool to watch him go for the last time.â€
Mauney on his current spot in the world standings:
“I am not feeling good at all about where I am sitting in the standings. I don’t really pay attention to it a whole lot. I don’t even know where I am sitting right now. It don’t matter. It matters when that last bull bucks in Vegas how them points stack up. That is usually when I worry about it. When you get to the Finals and it comes down to that last bull, that is when you kind of worry about where you are sitting then.â€
Mauney on whether he would rather ride Bushwacker in Santa Barbara, and possibly be the last person to ride him, or have another shot at the Finals:
“I would like to ride him now and at the Finals. It’s going to be the last time we buck him. I would like to get on him there too. It would be pretty cool to be the last one to ever get on him and hopefully ride him the last time they buck him. I would like to ride him Thursday and at the Finals. It wouldn’t bother me none. It really don’t matter when I get on him."
Mauney on the impact of his wife, Lexie, on in his bull riding career:
“Before it was all me. I crawled in that bucking chute and it was just me. If I got thrown off it didn’t affect anybody but J.B. If I was broke and didn’t win, J.B. didn’t eat. It has changed a little bit now. We are kind of a like a team you could say. She is always right there. She puts her barrel racing on hold for me during the first of the year and the end of the year to go to bull ridings. During the summer that is why I don’t go to many challengers during the summer. I made a deal with her that we would go to the Built Ford Toughs and when we took a break we would go to rodeos so she could run barrels and go to barrel racings, which don’t bother me because it gets me away from the bull ridings and gets my mind off it and I don’t think about it as much.â€
“When you go two or three months straight you kind of get worn down, beat up, tired of traveling. You sit at home for a month, two months and you are ready to go and you are craving it. You are ready to go. When you are craving it like that, that is when it seems like it is clicking and you really want to do it.â€
“I look up at her before I get on them bulls and she just smiles at me and waves and it is a team. She is always there. No matter if I do good or bad she is always there to support me. If I do bad, she will pick me up and help me boost my confidence. She will say ‘Hey, there is always next time.’ I was one that was real hard on myself about when I get thrown off and I still am to a certain extent, but I get over it a lot faster now.â€
Mauney on if Bushwacker’s legacy will be tainted if he rides him at a Touring Pro Division event:
“I don’t think it is. They will buck him at more Built Ford Toughs this year. Usually what happens, when I rode him at Tulsa they brought him back and bucked him again and he fired even harder. It kind of pisses him off. The farther you ride him, it kind of makes him mad. He is like a bull rider in a sense. If you ride one, one jump you feel pretty bad, but if you ride one 7.9 and don’t make the whistle it pisses you off. You want to try even harder the next time. Riding him there I don’t believe it will because he will still get to go to Built Ford Toughs and I doubt anybody is going to ride him the rest of the year.â€
Mauney on sharing a legacy with Bushwacker
“Oh yeah. That helped me out last year when I rode him. When you ride, well, pretty much the best bull going since I have been in the PBR and I have ever seen in person, when you ride him your confidence can’t get any higher. I had been trying for so long to ride him and to eventually get it finished and ride him, there was no better feeling. Boy, I was 10-foot tall and bulletproof when I jumped off there. That is the cool thing about the PBR, being able to pick your own bull in the short round, I could get on him as many times as I would want to. Just by luck, I drew him in a lot of other places to. It gives me the chance, I guess you could see me mature and when I did and I got all my ducks in a row I finally rode him. It worked out perfect. It couldn’t of worked out any better.â€
Mauney on Bushwacker being in a league of his own when it comes to over bulls:
“He is all of his own I believe. Bodacious kind of had the power like him and would jerk a person down kind of like he does, but if you ever seen him ride him, most of the time, he just jumped and kicked in a big circle. It was just the power that got everybody out on him. The thing about Bushwacker, he is not only got the power, he has the speed to. If anybody ever makes it to when he does turn back he is wide open. When he finds them a spot and he thinks he needs to do it, he is 90 mph. It aint all about the power. Here lately through the first of this year it has been because he has been setting everybody up jerking them in their hands and throwing them off, but he is a type of bull that when you go to ride him he is going to try and figure out how to throw you off. Whereas most other bulls I have ever seen from when the PBR started, most of the time you ride a bull they eventually are going to slow down and start becoming a good bull. Especially the ones that get older, but him, he hasn’t slowed down hardly at all."
Mauney on if Bushwacker knows it’s him when he climbs into the chute:
“I don’t know if he does or not. I don’t think so. He is smart enough, I don’t know. The way I look at is I act like he is a bull I never seen. There is no telling. Every time I watched him he walks into the chute and stands the same way no matter who is getting on him. When the gate opens there is no telling what he is going to do. I don’t think so. He just bucks because he likes bucking.â€
Mauney on the fact that Bushwacker hasn’t been tested beyond the 5-second mark:
"The way I figure, Mike got on him last week and what not and rode him 5 seconds, so I figure lucky J.B. will get on him and he will be mad about that and will buck a little harder. It don’t really bother me whether they rode him one jump or seven jumps. It don’t bother me. I don’t care.â€
Mauney on how riding Bushwacker again can boost his confidence heading into the BFTS second half:
"Last year he was the rankest bull going and this year he is still the rankest bull going. You ride him again, anytime you ride him it is going to boost your confidence and that is a wave you can ride for a long time right there."
