Even the top cowboys, like Taos Muncy, get the blues

Taos Muncy squatted in the dirt behind the chutes at the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo. The 24-year-old saddle bronc rider sat in a ring of cowboys, who were chatting as they checked their tack and watched the bucking horses in the arena Wednesday night.

Muncy, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association saddle bronc leader, had rolled into town just barely two hours before the 8 p.m. competition. Days before he had been up in Casper, Wyo., for another rodeo, and then had spent three days at home in Corona, N.M.

“I had a real good run,” he said, remembering the 38 rodeos he has ridden in this year. But Wednesday night would be another thing, and he didn’t want to speculate. “I’m not saying anything till the end.”

Muncy was ready to do well on his lone night, and sweat out the rest of the rodeo — three more nights of saddle bronc competition — to see how he would do. For Muncy, doing well is about luck, and a good bucking horse — a horse of any age, he said, that “just jumps and bucks.” Some rodeo nights, Muncy is randomly assigned a good horse; other times, he is not so lucky.

Muncy was a big attraction Wednesday night. The crowd would be watching every moment of his 8-second ride, when he would try to stay aboard a wild bucking bronc, holding one rein and carefully watching his spurring rhythm.

Thirty minutes before his ride, Muncy stretched his limbs, and tried to clear his mind. He had drawn a tricky ride, Piñon, a bronc who had bucked him off twice before in other rodeos, disqualifying Muncy.

Seconds before his ride, as he taped his hand to his saddle, Muncy went through a checklist. He reminded himself to lift his left rein. He got his legs ready for a good markout, or a good start out of the chutes when the rider’s legs have to be in front of the horse’s shoulder. Last of all, Muncy reminded himself to use his big silver spurs to kick the horse with each buck.

This moment, before Piñon launched himself from the chutes, seemed like the most natural thing in the world to Muncy. “If you don’t get on, you don’t get paid,” he said. “It’s a crazy way to make a living.”

From a family of professional rodeo riders, this is all Muncy ever wanted to do. As fellow cowboy and champion bull rider Bobby Welsh, 25, described it, riders like Muncy are professional athletes — being on a bronc or bull comes naturally to them. “It’s like a computer-generated program,” Welsh said.

When Muncy was ready to start up, the crowd was ready for one of its star attractions. The gate was pulled open, and Piñon shot out, veering to the right but leading with the left leg. Muncy kept his feet in position, but the horse was leaning into his rein hand. Muncy lost his rhythm, went flying, and landed in the dirt. He had been in the saddle for only 5 seconds — not enough to give him a score.

Muncy’s rodeo was over. “I’ve had that horse three times,” he reflected, “I’ve yet to get him rode.”

The saddle bronc riders continued to jet out of the chutes while Muncy packed up his gear. He and his driving buddies — four other saddle bronc riders — would grab a bite to eat and head north. On Thursday they had to be back in Wyoming.

“You never can be just perfect at bronc riding,” Muncy said. “There’s always something to learn.”