The season for the world’s largest bull riding league, PBR, better known as Professional Bull Riding, starts Friday. Twenty founders met inside a Scottsdale motel room to form it more than three decades ago.
The Arizona Ridge Riders ready for competition at their official training home — Buckeye Equestrian and Events Center — during a June kick-off party.
Their newest Navajo teammate is JaCauy Hale. The 22-year-old Diné sensation is from Ganado, Arizona, on the Navajo Nation.
“The pressure is there a little bit, even here tonight from me being from Arizona,” said Hale. “But, you know, the game plan is still the same.”
Hale was last year’s Indian National Rodeo Finals bull riding champion. The Glendale-based franchise drafted him for its roster. Now, he shares a locker room with another Navajo bull riding star — Keyshawn Whitehorse — from McCracken Spring, Utah.
“We both come from the reservation,” Hale added. “We’re always talking and joking, you know. There’s some rez-jokes that only me and Keyshawn will get. It’s kinda like a home.”
They and the rest of the Ridge Riders are listening to Mo Brings Plenty, an Oglala Lakota actor best known for the “Yellowstone” series.
“They’re humble, which is their power. A lot of Indigenous people on this team, from the north and south, like-minded,” Brings Plenty said. “We all share something in common, and that’s the love of this sport.”
He’s now director of team culture and believes bull riding brings athletes, spectators and fans together. Their multicultural roster of riders come from all walks of life: Brazil, Mexico and even the Navajo Nation.
“We’re better off together, versus being separated. There’s too much segregation in the country today,” said Brings Plenty. “And so, for me it’s about, what’s the greatest thing that brings us together. And this is a sport that happens to do that.”
Whenever Brings Plenty isn’t busy traveling, he pledged, “I’m always going to go cheer on the Ridge Riders, and I believe in them hoisting that trophy. Heck, they were close last year, and so hopefully, this is going to be the year.”
This May, the 2025 PBR World Finals will take place in Arlington, Texas.
