Bull that jumped the fence at Oregon rodeo forced to retire from competition, owner says

By CLAIRE RUSH
Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Party Bus, a 3-year-old bull bred for bucking, has performed in his first and last rodeo.

Party Bus — named after his father, Short Bus — made national headlines last weekend at his first rodeo when he jumped the fence of a crowded arena in central Oregon and careened through the concessions area, injuring three people.

The bull made a mistake and didn’t intend to hurt anyone, his owner said, adding that it was the first time Party Bus had been around that many people.

“He simply went and jumped out of the arena. It happens, and not very often, thank God. I had no idea he would do that,” the bull’s owner, Mike Corey, told The Associated Press.

Videos taken by people attending the Sisters Rodeo on Saturday show Party Bus clearing the fence, running through the concessions area and throwing a woman into the air with his horns. After charging through the rodeo grounds, he ran back to the livestock holding pens, where “rodeo livestock professionals quickly responded to safely contain the bull,” the Sisters Rodeo Association said in a statement.

The bull’s bold escape lasted all of thirty seconds, Thad Olsen, fire chief of the Cloverdale Rural Fire Protection District, told AP.

“It could have been way worse. We were very fortunate that we only had three people with relatively minor injuries,” he said.

Olsen said one person broke their arm and another hurt their head and neck. The woman who was tossed in the air had the least serious of all the injuries.

Corey said he was disappointed that the bull’s first rodeo was ultimately his last. Party Bus was bred from award-winning bulls, Corey said, and trained for bucking with a remote-controlled dummy.

But while he wishes the bull could be given a second chance, he’s not going to push it, he said.

Now that Party Bus has been “condemned” — meaning the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association will never allow him to compete in a rodeo again, according to Corey — he will spend the rest of his days on Corey’s ranch in eastern Washington, siring more baby bulls who Corey hopes will become “superstar athletes” with their own chance at rodeo glory someday.

“He’s a great animal,” he said. “His daughters and his sons will be a huge asset in the future of rodeo.”