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790 Mossy Oak Mudslinger
Buckin Stock Magazine - 10/12/2007
by Angie Gentry
790 Mossy Oak Mudslinger
by Angie Gentry
It's hard to believe this year's PBR Finals will mark one full year of bull riding action without one of the most popular bucking bulls in the history of the sport. The reigning PBR Bull of the Year, 790 Mossy Oak Mudslinger, has spent the last year relaxing with the ladies at home in Ardmore, OK, working on his new career as herd sire. If the buckers he has already produced are any indication, this iconic bucking bull is well on his way to becoming as legendary a sire as he was a performer.
Mudslinger was born to be a bucking bull. His pedigree featured some of the top genetics of the Page breeding program. His sire, Page 01, was a son of Super Dave and his dam was a daughter of Broke Back V. Dillon Page remembered Mudslinger's sire, 01, very well. "His daddy was outstanding but he broke his leg when he was a three-year-old. I had sent him with a guy to a high school rodeo and he stepped on the cowboy and broke three of his ribs and the bull broke his foot. He sent both bullfighters and the cowboy out in the ambulance that night," Dillon said.
"We took him to Stillwater to the college and they operated on his foot and set it. We got him home and another bull broke it again," he said.
Unable to keep the bull sound, Dillon decided to use him as a breeding bull. "We'd bred to him intentionally a couple times and then it got to where we couldn't keep him in. One day, through ignorance, I just got mad and hauled him to the cow sale. We bucked the first set of calves about two months after we hauled him off. After seeing them it wouldn't have mattered how hard he was to keep in but it was too late, of course," Dillon explained.
According to Dillon, all the calves out of 01 were good but Mudslinger was the best. "There was not another bull that bucked like him but I don't know that we'll ever own another bull that bucked like him," he said.
From the very first trip, Mudslinger showed a great deal of promise. "He was good from the first day. We liked him because from day one he walked in the bucking chute and it was like he knew exactly what his job was," Dillon said.
Once he left the chute, though, Mudslinger wasn't as easy to get along with. "He was pretty mean when we started him. He probably hooked three or four different cowboys pretty good when we started out. He had a good mean streak in him but the second year it just kind of went away and he settled down to be the bull he was. He still has a little of that in him though. The last year we took him to the PBR Finals he almost got me down in the back pen when I fed him. If you got in the wrong spot he would show you he wasn't a pet," Dillon said.
Almost every bull riding fan knows the amazing statistics surrounding Mudslinger's career. Ridden 27 out of 93 PBR outs, an average ride score of 92 and an average bull score of nearly 46.
What most people don't know is that Mudslinger, much like the cowboys he bucked off, battled pain throughout his career H.D. Page said. "Something that some people don't realize is that that bull was not 100 percent for most of his career. The first year or two where we hauled him were the only years he was 100 percent. And he was out on cows a lot when we hauled him and that's hard on bulls. I think he had a back injury when he was young and it was a nagging deal. I don't think he ever got over it but he learned how to deal with it. That really tells what kind of heart that bull had to be able to put the pain aside to perform as long as he did as hard as he did," H.D. said.
Mudslinger's first calf crop hit the ground in 2001 and in the past few years several of his offspring have shown to be good buckers. One of the most famous Mudslinger sons is Copperhead Slinger, hauled by Berger and Ryken. "He's short round bull and it wouldn't surprise me if they don't start talking about him for bull of year before long," Dillon said.
The long list of Mudslinger sons doesn't stop there. Bulls like Mud Flap, Mud Duck and Lil Slinger are doing well in the professional ranks.
Others like Dirty Doug, Vortex, Hot Stuff, Rain Dancer, Little Johnny and Bonafide have been standouts at aged events. "I guess if you stop and look I hadn't really noticed there's that many of them," Dillon said.
And that's not including all the young bulls that were injured before their time in the spotlight. "Part of the problem we run into with Mudslinger sons is when we buck them they buck so hard and they're so hot they don't stay together very well," H.D. said.
"They need time to learn how to let up a little bit so they don't wreck themselves the first few times you buck them. They're almost reckless and a guy's going to have to take a little more time with them and settle them down before you start bucking them. For the most part they don't really blossom until they're three or so," he explained.
Wes Bruce's 516 Little Johnny is one young Mudslinger son that is currently on the injured list. "He's recovering from an injury that he sustained and I'm not going to get to take him to the ABBI Finals, which is a terrible disappointment," Bruce said.
"He won first in one NBBA event, second in another one and was ninth at the American Heritage Futurity. He won a lot of money and I thought he was certainly a contender until he got hurt," Bruce said. Fortunately, he believes Little Johnny will do well with some time off and will eventually be able to return to bucking.
According to the Pages, the number one characteristic Mudslinger passes to his offspring is kick. "I've yet to buck a calf out of him that didn't kick. That's something I feel like is really important. A bull can want to learn how to spin but if he doesn't have kick he can't learn that. They either have it or they don't and his calves have always had that. If they kick hard there will always be a place in the business for them at some level," H.D. said.
They also have high hopes for the Mudslinger daughters they've raised. "It looks like his daughters are going to be outstanding producers. We're taking a three-year-old to the Wild Cart that's out of a Mudslinger daughter," Dillon said.
With 2007 being Mudslinger's first full year on cows without interruption, the number of outstanding Mudslinger offspring can only be expected to keep growing. Especially, Dillon confessed, because he's partial to the bull as a herd sire. "Most everybody that knows Mudslinger would be pretty partial to him. I really think most everybody had respect for what we did as far as retiring him when we did. I can tell by watching him get around that he feels better now than he did last year. He's in a little pasture with some yearlings and he's happy," Dillon said.
But of all the happy moments in Mudslinger's lifetime, Dillon said the most memorable happened one year ago in Las Vegas. "To me the greatest moment was when he threw Guilherme off at the finals last year. I honestly think that day he stepped up and he proved that he was worthy of being called bucking bull of the year. He threw off the best bull rider going that year and he did it with authority and did it as honest as he ever did. To me, that was probably one of the best things he could have ever done for his career. He had trips that were better than that one but that's the one I'll always remember."
