Gisborne cowboy beats Aussie bull riders
A lacerated liver, collapsed lung, and broken ribs are all part of the sport of bull riding for a Gisborne cowboy
Gisborne boy Fraser Babbington buried the hopes of Australian cowboys this week on a big bad bull named Gangnam Style.
Cowboys from across Australia gathered for the Mackay leg of the world-wide Professional Bull Riders (PBR) circuit, converting the league field into a sandy bull ring – with expectant ambulance staff close-by.
The near sell-out crowd was treated to an intense, highly competitive and brutal event, with at least one broken leg – everything PBR aspires to be.
“This is not a rodeo. We don’t rope calves, and we don’t chase barrels. This is bull riding, and the first rule is just to stay alive,” Babbington said.
Babbington, 27, was brought up around horses in Gisborne and made the NZ World Youth Show Jumping team at the age of 15. He rode his first bull as a dare, working in Australia’s Northern Territory as a 17-year-old and has been hooked on the adrenalin ever since. He took out the Australian Bull Riding Championship in 2013 and has aspirations to compete in the United States, where PBR was founded.
After leading the early rounds of the Mackay event, Babbington had the last ride of the night. He proved up to the challenge, staying on Gangnam Style for the full eight seconds before delighting the crowd with fist pumps and posturing fit for a haka.
Babbington said, “I saw a mate of mine ride that bull in Yeppoon [Queensland] and he was pretty bucky there, so I thought yeah, I’ll have a bit of that”.
PBR will make its New Zealand debut in Christchurch on November 13.
“It will be good to go back home and perform in front of a home crowd and take it out hopefully,” Babbington told the crowd.
The prospect of being the first to ride New Zealand bull Captain Hook excites Babbington, who in 2009 booked himself into ICU for three weeks after being “alley-ooped then run over by a bull”. He suffered a lacerated liver, collapsed lung, and broken ribs.
This tough Kiwi cowboy, who has been described as being something between Richie McCaw and Joseph Parker, was back in the bull ring just six months after the life-threatening injuries.
“The harder and bigger it bucks, the better. Some bulls have made a name for themselves, ones that aren’t ridden. That’s the whole challenge of the sport – getting to that eight seconds on an unridden bull is a big highlight.”
Babbington admitted to ABC last year that a bit of fear helps “keep you on these animals” but that he’s “more scared of falling off and looking like a dickhead really”.
It seems the Aussies have caught onto the Babbington name quicker than those back in his home country. If this week’s heroics were anything to go by, PBR’s debut in Christchurch should change that.
