The figure in the painted face and oversized jeans looks like comic relief, and part of the job is indeed to keep a crowd laughing between rides. But the modern rodeo clown, or more precisely the bullfighter, has a deadly serious purpose: to stand between a thrown rider and an angry bull.

When a cowboy hits the dirt, the bullfighter rushes in, putting his own body in the animal's path to draw its charge and buy the rider a few seconds to scramble to safety. It requires reading a bull's intent in an instant, then dancing just out of reach of horns that could kill.

The role has split over the years. Some performers focus on comedy, working the crowd and manning the barrel that offers a last refuge. Others are pure bullfighters, athletes whose only job is protection and who take beatings so that riders do not.

It is a thankless kind of heroism, most visible only when something goes wrong. Riders know exactly how much they owe these men, and more than a few walking cowboys are alive because a bullfighter stepped in when it counted. The paint may say clown, but the work is closer to that of a bodyguard who volunteers to be gored.