PUEBLO, Colo. – Las Vegas was always a special place for L.J. Jenkins during his 12-year bull riding career.
Eight years ago, the Porum, Oklahoma, bull rider won the 2011 National Finals Rodeo event average inside the Thomas & Mack Center just five years after he won the PBR World Finals as a 19-year-old.
In fact, Jenkins is one of only three riders in PBR history to win the World Finals event title and the NFR title. Nine-time World Champion Ty Murray (1998/1999) and Team USA Wolves coach Ted Nuce (1985/1994) are the only other riders to pull off the rare feat.
Jenkins’ riding days may now be in the past, but he was in Vegas this past November for PBR Finals Week, albeit in a different role as a stock contractor.
Some high school students of the Current Ag Concerns Media Group from DeWitt, Iowa, attended the 2019 Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour Finals last month at the South Point Hotel Casino and Resort to get hands-on experience with photography, social media and digital media content creation. The Current Ag Concerns Media Group is part of the Clinton County Farm Bureau’s Agriculture in the Classroom program.
Megan Clark, a sophomore in high school, interviewed Jenkins for PBR.com during the Velocity Tour Finals.
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Megan Clark: You are a retired cowboy. Could you tell us a little bit about the events you competed at in the past?
L.J. Jenkins: Being a professional bull rider, we got to go all over the country. I’ve been to the Dallas Cowboy’s Stadium – that was probably one of the big highlights – to Madison Square Garden in New York City. I’ve been to Mexico and rode and represented Team USA. Being a professional bull rider, you get to see so many things, and it was a great career and, unfortunately, I got hurt and I had to retire, but now I am into the bucking bull side of it, so I am still going.
MC: What is the biggest event you ever competed in?
LJJ: It would have to be here in Las Vegas at the World Finals. I was fortunate enough in 2006 to win the Finals, and that is probably my biggest career highlight. Vegas is the Super Bowl of rodeo, and that is where we want to go.
MC: You said you are more into the bucking bulls now. Could you tell us a bit about that?
LJJ: Yeah, in the PBR it is two different athletes. You have your professional bull riders, and then you have your bulls. They have got to be just as good, and now I am bringing the bulls for my buddies to get on. And it is something to stay in the sport and stay involved, and I get to come to Vegas every year.
MC: Do you miss the bull riding side of it? Or do you enjoy the stock side more?
LJJ: I miss bull riding. Obviously, the adrenaline rush. Bull riding is always going to be in my blood. Do I miss getting hurt and stepped on and run over? No, I don’t miss that one bit. I was fortunate enough to have a 12-year career in the PBR, and I still get to see my friends every day. I just don’t have to deal with the pain, and it is a lot better.
MC: With that, is there is a big difference between being a stock contractor and a rider?
LJJ: Yeah. Being a rider, you have to mentally prepare yourself that this could be your last day on this earth, and really that is the main thing, and you have to be okay with that. I’ll tell you what, I get more nervous being a stock contractor than I did being a rider, because being a rider I could control my own destiny. I have no control over these animals. I can get them in as great of shape as I can, and I just have to hope that they have a good out every time we go somewhere. It is a totally different ballgame on each end, but I enjoy both sides of it.
MC: How has the bull caliber been this year?
LJJ: These are the toughest bulls in the world, and it seems like every year the stepping stone gets bigger in the bucking bull industry. You see bulls making half a million dollars, and people paying a half a million dollars for the bulls, and they are just going to keep getting bigger and better.
MC: Where are you looking to expand?
LJJ: I always want to have more bulls here in Las Vegas. Every year that is a goal, to just get one more than I had the previous year. Doing that is tough, though. You have got to be going all year round, and you have to put them up against the best guys in the world, and hopefully they make it.
MC: What is your advice to someone who may have gotten injured and is trying to get back onto their feet by doing what you are doing right now?
LJJ: It is just part of the game, you know? You have got to be prepared and, yeah, you get hurt and it is a mental setback, but as always, one door closes, and one door opens. That is the way I looked at. I was 28 years old when I got hurt, and decided maybe it was time to try something different. It has been a great career, and I am on the bull side of it now, and I am enjoying it. There is always something there. So, don’t let something get you down.