Bull riding sits at the dangerous heart of rodeo, the event fans crowd the rails to see and the one that sends the most cowboys to the hospital. A rider straps a rope around a bull's girth, wraps it around his hand, and holds on as more than a ton of muscle tries to launch him skyward.

The danger does not end when the ride does. A thrown rider lands within reach of hooves and horns, and a bull that turns on a downed cowboy is a genuinely lethal threat. Concussions, broken bones, and worse are constant companions of the sport, and every serious rider knows someone gravely hurt.

Protective gear has improved. Many riders now wear vests and helmets that once would have marked them as timid, a shift driven by hard experience and a younger generation less willing to gamble its brain on tradition.

Why do it? Riders speak of the rush, the challenge of mastering an animal built to unseat them, and a brotherhood forged in shared risk. The purses can be large, but few get rich. For most, the answer is simpler and harder to explain to outsiders: nothing else in life feels quite like the moment the gate swings open.