Saturday night during the most recent PBR Moose Jaw Powered by Young’s Equipment show, it was all cowboys, all night.
The event featured a total of 15 riders lasting the full eight seconds on the Alpha Bull cadre of stock, including 12 during the first round and three more during the short-go.
Two of those belonged to Kindersley’s Dakota Buttar – an 85.0-point ride on Lon’s Lost It in the first go and impressive 89.5 on Grey Tower III in the second – for a 174.5 total and first place on the night.
All the more impressive considering Buttar hadn’t been on a bull the last two months while he recovered from a shoulder injury.
“I was kind of nervous getting back into in tonight, but it felt good and things went really well so I’m pretty happy with it,” Buttar said shortly after receiving the Alpha Bull champion’s guitar. “Coming into the weekend, I just wanted to test how everything felt and it felt good, so I’ll go hard from now on and see what I can do the rest of the way.”
Buttar had an idea of what he was up against with both rides, having seen them in action in the past.
“This last one (Grey Tower), I’d seen a bit, the previous one I’d seen before but I didn’t know a lot about him, so I was happy to get the ride,” he said. “Some guys don’t like knowing bulls, but I like to have and idea of what I’m getting into.”
Making the Moose Jaw stop all the more special was how close it was to home – with Buttar’s girlfriend and a handful of friends from back home making the short trip to take in the show.
“It’s really nice being close to home, I’ve been travelling down south all winter and it’s nice to have a short car-ride here,” he said.
Claresholm, Alta.’s Logan Biever had the top performance during the long-go, riding Lace Up for 87.5 points, but was unable to stay on Fish Camp in his short-go.
Maple Creek’s Jared Parsonage – the current PBR Canada points leader – finished second with 171 points after riding Hoka Hey for 83 points and covering Home Grown for 88 points in the second round.
The event wrapped up with a performance by Juno Award-winning The Washboard Union immediately after the final ride.
