Bullheaded: The Sam brothers of Rio Rancho are hooked on riding bulls in regional rodeos

RIO RANCHO — Talk around the Sam family’s kitchen table recently was full of bull.

That doesn’t mean it was exaggerated or untrue. It means that the Sam brothers — Tommy, 21, Vernon, 17, and Eddie, 16 — are rodeo bullriding zealots who’ll talk bull as long as you’ll listen.

They told a visitor about the bull that stepped on Tommy’s face and the one that kicked their dad in the head.

Eddie tried to explain the fixation of getting on the back of animals that can hurt you bad or worse in a hurry.

“It’s having that feeling that one small move can make the difference,” he said. “It’s having the thrill of hanging on, paying the bills and staying alive.”

Tommy, Vernon and Eddie have done between 20 and 30 rodeos this year, counting shows produced by New Mexico’s Baca Rodeo Company and other events in the state and Four Corners region.

A couple of months ago, Eddie won Baca’s Renegade Series title in novice bullriding, earning him an ornate Red Bluff Buckles Co. belt buckle and a handsome Corriente Saddle Co. saddle.

The title also put him in a drawing with the Renegade Series champs in open bullriding, saddle bronc riding, novice horse riding and bareback bronc riding for a custom 1995 Chevrolet rodeo van.

Eddie won the drawing, but he can’t drive the van — yet.

Although he’s old enough to ride bulls that can stomp him into jelly, he doesn’t have a driver’s license.

Always rodeo

The Sam boys’ idea of New Year’s fireworks is an angry bull exploding our of a rodeo chute.

Friday and Saturday, the Sam brothers top off the year riding bulls at the Jacobs Custom Buckers New Year’s Eve Wild West Fiesta at McGee Park Coliseum in Farmington.

“It’s the challenge of trying to ride an unridable animal,” Tommy said.

The brothers grew up in Rio Rancho, but their parents are from Window Rock, Arizona. The family, which also includes 19-year-old sister Raquel, is Diné (Navajo).

The brothers follow the dust of their father, Emerson, 46, who has put in time as a rodeo bullrider and team roper and makes his living as a farrier and horse trainer.

All of the boys started rodeoing young. Tommy was team roping with his dad from ages 7 to 14. Vernon and Eddie started mutton busting, riding sheep, when they were 4 and 3 respectively.

They did rodeo events tailored for kids — goat tying, pole bending, etc. — and all of them took part in team roping with their father.

But it’s bullriding that’s their shared passion.

“It has been my dream since I was a kid,” said Vernon.

He grew up watching movies such as 1994’s “8 Seconds,” about bullrider Lane Frost, who was killed by a bull in 1989. Besides his own father, Vernon counts Ty Murray, world champion rodeo cowboy and co-founder of Professional Bull Riders (PBR), and Navajo bullrider Cody Jesus as influences.

“I think (bullriding) is really fun — whether I hang on or get bucked off,” he said.

The brothers’ mother, LaVern, said her sons put nothing ahead of rodeo.

“These guys, any money they get for birthdays, from aunties and grannies, or from working, they put into rodeo,” she said. “‘Want to go to Six Flags or Disneyland?’ ‘No, we want to go to the Baca series.’ ‘Want an X-box?’ ‘No. Rodeo.'”

Bad news bulls

Like Eddie, Tommy and Vernon have known bullriding success.

Tommy won a Baca series open bullriding title in 2022. Vernon finished second in novice bullriding at the Red Ryder Roundup Rodeo in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, in July 2022.

But they know all too well it’s not all adrenaline, adventure, the roar of the crowd and shiny belt buckles. Riding bulls is a punishing endeavor.

At a Fourth of July rodeo in Grants in 2020, Tommy landed on his back after being tossed by a bull, which then stepped on the faceguard of his helmet. “It pushed the metal through my lip,” he said. “I had to get 15 stitches.”

He said it was three weeks before he could smile. Even now, he doesn’t smile when he talks about it.

During a Baca Renegade Series rodeo in Farmington in July 2022, Vernon suffered a badly pulled groin muscle while bullriding.

“For a few weeks, I couldn’t walk very well,” he said. “When I could walk, I got on a bull again. But that didn’t work out so good, so then I laid off another three or four weeks.”

Eddie started riding miniature bulls when he was 10. That’s how old he was when he got thrown while riding a practice bull in an arena in Sawmill, Arizona, 20 miles north of Window Rock.

The bull didn’t know it was practice. It stepped on Eddie, ripping open his right thigh.

“You would think that would have scared him,” Emerson said of his youngest son. “It more encouraged him.”

It took Eddie eight months to recover from the thigh injury. He said that period was “obnoxious,” because he was watching his brothers ride bulls, but couldn’t do it himself.

“My role then was the cameraman,” he said.

Tommy gives Eddie credit for the determination he showed to get better as quick as he could.

“He was stocky back in those days. We called him Chubby,” Tommy said. “But he came back with a vengeance. He was running on a treadmill, working out in the garage with weights.”

Their various injuries and close calls have taught the brothers to value precaution.

When their father got on a bull eight years ago at a rodeo in Bernalillo, his sons insisted he wear a helmet just as he always insists they do.

After he hit the ground, the bull kicked Emerson in the helmet. The blow shattered the helmet, but not his head.

Down the line

The brothers have grown up helping their dad work horses at the stables he rents in Corrales and doing odd jobs wherever to make money.

“Eddie used to sit on the front of my saddle when I was chasing wild horses in Placitas,” Emerson said. “I’m proud of my boys. The rodeo lifestyle has brought them up.”

The brothers are savvy enough to know that although they live for rodeo, they can’t count on making a living from it.

Tommy is working as a plumber with Local Union 412.

Vernon is a senior at Rio Rancho’s Cleveland High School. After graduating, he wants to enroll in the farrier studies program at Mesalands Community College in Tucumcari.

Eddie, a sophomore at Cleveland, still has time to decide his future. He said he might follow Tommy into the trades, plumbing or welding.

But that’s down the line. The brothers still have a lot of rodeo in them, and all three want to get on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) circuit.

“This coming year, I’m planning on getting my PRCA certificate,” Tommy said. “I’d like to do more than one event, but I will start out just bullriding. And I’m going to do it until the doctors says I can’t.”