“Your mind knows how to do everything, but you have to let it...you’ve got to know and trust that you did everything you could to prepare to do this.” ~ Perry Yutzy, Bull rider ~
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HOWARD COUNTY – Perry Yutzy, 26, originally from Hazelton, Iowa, started bull riding two years ago, and ever since then he has taken well to the sport. And how does one get into such a sport? Strictly by chance, of course – at least for Perry.
“A stranger walked up to me one day and asked me if I’ve ever ridden a bull, and I said, ‘No, but I’ve always wanted to,’ so that’s where I got started.”
For the past several years, Perry has called Howard County his home, and there from his bull riding beginning were his good friends, the Rices – and especially Chester, Iowa resident Tracy Rice, known to be his “no. one fan.” “They have just been helping out and doing whatever they can for me from day one,” said Perry.
Tracy said, “I absolutely thought Perry would be amazing at bull riding!”
She added, “His drive comes from the heart. He is passionate about his bulls and he can do anything he sets his heart to.”
While Perry says there are many people to credit for helping him to follow through with his interest in the sport, it was by chance that he was given a phone number for fellow bull rider Melvin Hershberger of Jefferson, Wis.
“He just pointed me in the right direction, and the pieces of the puzzle started to come together,” said Perry, who was soon introduced to the Gary Leffew Bull Riding School based in Santa Maria, Calif. And the rest, as they say, is history. “Gary’s the best teacher out there,” said Perry. “I spend quite a bit of time there during the winter months, just riding bulls and having fun.”
In the past two years, bull riding has introduced the young rider to many different locations nationwide. “It’s taken me from Maine to California and everywhere in-between,” said Perry. “Coast to coast. You get to see so many new places and new faces.”
He added, “Last year was my first year of competition and I would do sometimes four shows in a weekend – Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We might be in Nebraska one night and southern Illinois the next night. You travel from one show to the other...and I’ve had very good luck.”
In fact, Perry’s first season of competition ended March 10-12 with the Bullriders of America Inc. (BOA) Finals in Burlington, Iowa, where he competed as runner up for the title of “Rookie of the Year.”
“It’s a lot of fun, you get to travel a lot and you get paid to do it,” he added, and to Perry, everything that comes with riding bulls tends to incite “an adrenaline rush”; from the traveling to hitting the riding ring to hearing the hefty crowds of bull riding fans as they cheer him on.
In his off time, Perry comes back home to northeast Iowa; however, he says that “home” tends to be wherever he hangs his hat.
But, “it’s not tiring when you’re doing what you love to do,” he said. “You enjoy it.”
Perry’s come a long way over the past two years, learning the ins and outs of bull riding and in beginning competition mode, but it’s a rough sport, and not for the faint of heart.
For example, during Perry’s first year of learning how to ride, he actually broke his jaw, which he says was a lesson-learning experience. “If you sit up and ride, that kind of thing doesn’t happen,” he said, “but if you get lazy and don’t do your drills or you don’t do what you need to do, then that is when something like that is going to happen.”
Even though Perry says he does get banged up from time to time, bull riding isn’t all “rough-and-tumble” and he never really was afraid to get back up on the bull after his jaw-breaking incident.
In addition, his good friend Tracy was there to urge him on. She says that around his neck, Perry wears a chain that features a dogtag with the word: “COURAGE.”
“I gave this to him two years ago when his jaw was broken,” she said, “and he has proven he has the courage to work hard, to try hard and to be the best!”
Now that Perry knows all about bull riding technique, he has grown even more in his courage. “Unless you know all the facts about riding, it looks way different, maybe scary,” he said. “Once you know how it all works – how it’s supposed to work – it breaks it down and makes riding a lot easier than you can just see with the naked eye.”
Indeed, Perry spends a lot of time running through bull riding drills and training exercises that assist in his endeavor to master the sport.
While there are a lot of logistics behind riding a bull, Perry adds that more than 90 percent of it is merely mental. “Your mind knows how to do everything, but you have to let it and you have to trust your drills, too,” he said. “You can’t just do your drills – when you show up and you get ready to get on that bull, you’ve got to know and trust that you did everything you could to prepare to do this. And you just have to keep that trust, let it go and relax.”
Many times, Perry says a bull rider is going to fall off the bull. “As soon as you fall ‘offa’ one, you forget about that one. I mean as soon as you pack up your gear, you’re done.”
Furthermore, bull riding is something Perry says he must do for himself. “You cannot ride for anybody else other than yourself,” he said. “If you’re out there because of somebody else, you’re not going to be doing what you want to do, so you’re not going to perform well, and you’re just going to get hurt.”
He added, “There’s a lot of times you’re nervous, but that’s where that trust in yourself comes in, when you know you did all the drills you could beforehand. This way you can bottle that nervousness and focus it on where it needs to go.”
Nervousness aside, to Perry, there’s really nothing he can think of that he dislikes about bull riding. In fact, it’s difficult for him to settle on just one favorite aspect of the sport. “It’s probably when you’re riding and when you’re in control...and there’s no resistance from the bull,” he said. “And when there are so many people that you don’t even know screaming and cheering for you, there’s nothing like it.”
Aside from competing, bull riding has introduced another type of work into Perry’s life: showbiz. That’s right, while at the Gary Leffew Bull Riding School, students have been put to the test on television and commercial sets.
In the past, Perry has helped out with a Jeep commercial, and a year ago, he was able to assist in a bull riding shoot for MTV’s “Jackass” series.
This year, he got the chance to help out on the set of the FOX television show “House” for an episode that aired Monday, March 14. “Gary [often referred to as the ‘Bull Riding Guru’] has done tons of commercials; he does this kind of stuff all the time and when I’m out there I get to go along and help,” said Perry. “I enjoy seeing everything and finding out how it works.”
For the “House” shoot, Perry says the crew brought about 8-10 different bulls and three different riders. “It took all day for [the TV crew] to get the shots they wanted,” he said. “It’s amazing the amount of work and effort that goes into something like that. There’s so many people and they all just do what they need to do, and everything fits together.”
Perry says he’s been fortunate. “A lot of people don’t ever get to see what goes on behind the scenes,” he said.
And through everything – from learning to ride to competing to his many travels and TV shoots – what’s the secret behind Perry’s adventurous and fearless success? “I’ve always got goals – I guess that’s how I operate,” he said. “I’m always dreaming about something.”
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