HELENA — Some say that God loves all of his creations, including horses, equally.
But that certainly doesn’t mean that He made all horses the same. And there’s nowhere to find better evidence for that than Saturday night at the Lewis and Clark County Fairgrounds.
C5 Rodeo’s Virgil might be bareback riding’s most prolific bucking bronc. He’s stoic in the stable but 1,500 pounds of pure bucking fury when coming out of his chute.
"That horse right there demands everything you got," said bareback champion Jacob Lees. "If you can't give it, then you're going to get throttled."
For the cowboys brave enough to subject themselves to Virgil's might, they'll be lucky just to hang onto their hats, much less their dignity. But for the few who do manage to navigate Virgil's unbridled power for eight seconds, they're usually rewarded with rodeo-winning scores.
"He's everything a bareback rider wants," said Lees. "He's got all the rankness you can ask for, all the timing in the world and he's as honest as the day is long."
Last Chance Stampede's winning bareback rider has now won the competition on the back of Virgil each of the past three years. Half of a rider's score comes from how difficult his horse made the ride.
"Man, it just feels like someone tied you to a train and is driving you off a cliff for 10 whole seconds over and over again," said Lees. "[Virgil is the] best there is — probably the best there'll ever be."
