Extreme bull riding and barrel racing Wednesday night to kick off Redding Rodeo

REDDING, Calif. — It's rodeo week in the City of Redding, and although the Redding Rodeo officially begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday night, May 18, extreme bull riders and barrel racers took to the rodeo grounds Wednesday night for fans to get a taste of the action ahead.

President of the Redding Rodeo, Bennett Gooch, explained to KRCR why they do the extra night beforehand.

"It's kind of a kick-off to the actual three-day rodeo,” Gooch explained. “A few years back, in [2013], we started and we had a champion's challenge which had all the top world champions, in all events, come in for one night. And, that bumped us from a three-day rodeo to a four-day rodeo. That lasted for five years. And then, the PRCA [Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association] decided to stop that tour. Our fans enjoyed the fourth day of rodeo so we decided we would put an extreme bulls event on that fourth day. But, we'd start the week off with it and then move through the rest of the week."

Gooch says extreme bull riding is a division of the PRCS, orProfessional Rodeo Cowboys Association, created for bull-riding fans. The rodeo then sees 40 of the top PRCA bull riders who then compete for a set of spurs. "The money does county for the NFR [National Finals Rodeo], and all that stuff, but it is kind of a double shot for the bull riders," Gooch told KRCR.

The competition also features barrel racing, a staple at the Redding Rode. Gooch says they have 93 girls entered in the event that will run the rest of the week.

Something unique this year is the sponsor for Wednesday night’s event. "Tonight's the first time we have had Win River and the Redding Rancheria step up and become a day sponsor," Gooch told KRCR. "So, it's Native American heritage night and we will have a little bit of their culture involved in grand entry, in singing and prayers, and things in their native languages."

As for the bull last year, who jumped the fence during the rodeo, Gooch says that was a freak incident and they don't expect that to happen again.

“In the rules of the PRCA, if a bull does anything remotely like that, and wants to get out, that bull’s retired. So he’s living his best life in a pasture down south of us. They actually won the event last year on him, but that was just a freak incident, you know, bulls are athletes and he just wanted to take a shortcut to get home.”