PRAIRIE CITY — “There’s an old saying in rodeo,” said Trever Hamsher, owner of Hamsher Fighting Bulls. “Nobody wants to see somebody get hurt — but if somebody does get hurt, nobody wants to miss it.”

That human fascination with danger may help explain the rising popularity of freestyle bullfighting, an extreme sport where the contestant is on the ground — not on the bull’s back. The sport burst on the rodeo scene in the 1980s, faded away for a time and is now enjoying a resurgence, with two professional leagues.

And Prairie City-based Hamsher Fighting Bulls, which provides rough stock for some of the sport’s biggest events, is riding high after one of its animals, a hard-charging beast named Habanero, was crowned Bull of the Year last month by the Bullfighters Only league.

Habanero was one of the animals used in the season-ending Bullfighters Only championship in Las Vegas, and a write-up on the league’s website referred to him as “the most feared bull of 2022.”

“We live in a Romanistic society — that’s why bullfighting is so popular,” said Hamsher, who likens bullfighters to gladiators. “It’s a real man vs. beast (contest), like putting your life on the line.”

Before becoming a breeder, Hamsher, 32, was a protection bullfighter in both bucking and freestyle events for 15 years, from age 10 to 25, spending time on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and Professional Bull Riders circuits.

“I hurt my neck and couldn’t do it no more,” he said.

In addition to a compressed neck, Hamsher’s litany of rodeo injuries includes two broken ankles, a broken foot, two broken arms, a broken hand, broken fingers and a horn in the mouth that cost him some teeth.

“After 15 years of that, your body gets pretty beat up,” Hamsher said.

In 2016, about a year after he got out of the sport, he found himself back in it after a friend suggested they go into the bull breeding business. They started a company called 12X Fighting Bulls, importing stock from Mexico to get the venture off the ground.

Eventually Hamsher and his wife, Marley, bought out their partner and renamed the company Hamsher Fighting Bulls.

“I feel blessed that I can still be involved in the sport, still be around my friends and do what I love and not have to beat my body up anymore,” Hamsher said.

Hamsher gives Marley full credit for being a good partner, not only in life but in business, pitching in to help take care of the animals and bringing in a steady paycheck from her work as a dental hygienist.

“I feel like every bull rancher needs a wife with a good job in town,” Hamsher joked.

The couple currently has about 50 animals, about half of them bulls. Hamsher Fighting Bulls provides stock for about 15 events a year and produces some shows of its own, including a fight at last year’s Grant County Fair. The company also sells both heifers and bulls to other breeders.

Hamsher is extremely proud of his breeding program.

“People ask me, ‘What do you do to make them mean?’” he said. “You can’t make one mean. It’s in their genetics.”

He notes that bullfighting traces its roots back thousands of years, to ritualistic bull jumping in ancient Crete and similar activities in prehistoric times.

“I mean, bull jumping is (depicted) in cave paintings,” he said. “It’s got to be one of the oldest sports.”

The animals used in freestyle bullfighting today are a breed called toro de lidia, a lineage that is also used in traditional Spanish-style bullfighting. But there are no capes, swords or spears in freestyle events — the bull is not killed in the end and can have a years-long career.

Freestyle fighting bulls typically weigh 1,000-1,100 pounds, not much more than half the size of a rodeo bucking bull, which might tip the scales at 1,800-2,000 pounds, according to Hamsher.

But what they may lack in size, freestyle fighting bulls make up in speed, agility and raw aggression. All of those qualities are on display when a bull is let loose in the arena, lowering its head as it charges its human opponent, hooking with its horns and flailing with its hooves as it pursues the bullfighter with deadly intent.

In Bullfighters Only events, the fighter must remain in the arena for at least 40 seconds and has up to a minute to accumulate a maximum of 100 points.

As with the mainstream rodeo event of bull riding, freestyle bullfighting is judged by the performance of both the human and animal participants.

The bullfighter can be awarded up to 50 points for style, control and degree of difficulty while maneuvering around and jumping over the bull. Some will throw in a variety of flips and other tricks. The bull can add as many as 50 points to the score based on its quickness, level of aggression and willingness to remain engaged with the fighter.

Obviously, it’s a high-risk sport, but steps are taken to protect the athletes. The tips of the bulls’ horns are cut off to the size of a quarter, for instance, and a protection bullfighter is standing by to jump in and distract the bull if a fighter gets in trouble in the arena.

A good bullfighter, Hamsher said, needs to have a high level of cardiovascular fitness, but there’s more to it than that.

“They need to be able to read cattle,” Hamsher said. “And they need to know how to control their mind — because there’s going to be times your feet need to stay put but your brain wants to run.”

The primary traits of a good fighting bull include aggressiveness, consistency and a willingness to stay engaged with its target — qualities Habanero has in spades, according to Hamsher.

“I always believed in him,” he said.

Now that Habanero has won the title of Bull of the Year, others are starting to believe in him as well.

Hamsher has had a number of calls from breeders wanting to buy calves and heifers sired by his prize bull — as well as some wanting to buy Habanero outright.

“I was told a couple of times, ‘Just name your price,’” Hamsher said.

But that deal, he added, is never going to happen.

“Some things in life,” Hamsher said, “are not for sale.”

Bullfighters Only has freestyle bullfighting videos on its YouTube channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@bullfightersonly2612