2 riders in the Tuff Bull Tour know all about how hard the life really is

On Friday it was the bulls over the cowboys at the Tuff Bull Tour competition at the Bill Peak Arena inside the Crawford County Fairgrounds.
Saturday, it was a lot of the same as the cowboys managed just two rides in the first go-around.
One rider who seemed to master the bulls both Friday and Saturday was Eric Welch of Salem, Mo.
Welch took his first go-around on Saturday for the regulatory eight seconds ... just barely.
As he came out of the chute, Welch seemed to lose control but he regained momentum and just as the eight-second buzzer went off, he was bucked off.
“It was real close,” Welch said. “When I first started, my rope slipped out and I was just trying to hang on.”
On Friday night, Welch was the only rider that managed to hang on for both rides and come away with the win. All-in-all on Friday, there were only four completed rides — with Welch taking two of them.
“It was pretty awesome,” Welch said. “I came up in this deal without really doing it before and they put me in it after I came up with a couple of buddies and one of them did not make it so I asked if I could take his spot and I got it.”
Welch is a rare breed of bull rider.
For the six years, since he was 16, Welch has been involved in the sport, Welch has been doing it full-time.
“There are ups and downs just like everybody does,” Welch said. “I have a little boy on the way so I am just trying to earn a living and make some money.”
But, Welch will be the first to say that there are weekends when the money is good and there are weekends when it isn’t as good.
“I just started riding full-time about three years ago,” Welch said. “It takes a lot working out and trying to stay in shape and keeping your mind right.
“You have gas prices the way they are, sometimes you have to get lucky and find other guys that are going to the same event and just ride with them.”
Even when the season is over between October and February, Welch keeps at it.
“You just get on and stay on,” Welch said. “If I could ride everyday, I would.”
He is not the only one.
Jesse Schellhamer of Ford, Kans., has been riding bulls professionally for 11 years.
His resume includes five appearances in the Pro Bull Riding World Championships.
But, he said that his experience is dwarfed by others.
“I would say that the bulls have more experience out here,” Schellhamer said. “They really have more than I have.”
Like Welch, Schellhamer rides full-time.
“It is a job and a profession,” Schellhamer said. “You treat it like a job and a profession and you get out of it what you put into it.”
He agreed that there are times when it gets rough for full-time bull riders.
“It is a mental thing,” Schellhamer said. “The better your mental game is, the better your overall game is and it is not so much physical as it is mental and if that is right you can ride through injuries.”
Welch is no stranger to injuries.
Even this weekend, he rode with a brace on his arm because of an injury.
“I tried to ride without it and even with tape but it really didn’t work out for me,” Welch said.
Both Welch and Schellhamer said that, despite the high price of gas and travel and the occasional likelihood of not collecting a paycheck, the sport is well worth the time they put into it.“It gets tough sometimes,” Welch said. “A lot of times you are lucky to just break even but this tour is very good and they have very good paychecks so it is something that I will stick with for as long as I can.”

Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140