September 20, 2026
A couple of months ago I saw an ad for an event coming to Greensboro. It was the Carolina Cowboy Days, a PBR Team Series event. PBR is the Professional Bull Riders. Normally bull riding is an individual sport but in 2022 the Team Series started with 8 teams. Carolina was one of them. The first year they were out of Winston - Salem but then in 2023 they moved to Greensboro. The basis of team riding is that each team has 5 riders. They are scored the same as any other bull riding event. Half of the score is the rider and the other half is the bull. The nastier the bull the higher the score. To get a good score, you need to stay on the bull for 8 seconds. Also, your free hand must not touch yourself or any part of the bull. If there is a touch the ride is disqualified. Each team is at home during the season and it has a 3 day event.
When we were on the road for our Bucket List Tour, we went to a local rodeo in Keystone, SD. It did not feature any bull riding. Rodeo is different than bull riding. However, we did go to a bull riding event in Tombstone, AZ. It was not PBR but featured riders from the area, including from high school teams. Both of these experiences were awesome. PBR was established in 1992 by about 20 famous riders. One of those riders is Jerome Davis. He was a bull rider until a very nasty accident in 1997 while riding and left paralyzed from the chest down. He is confined to a wheelchair but he is the Coach of the Carolina Cowboys. He actually lives in a small community not far from us. Last year he was named Coach of the Year and the Cowboys won the 2025 Team Championship. The first North Carolina professional team to win a championship.
All of that to say we went to the Carolina Cowboy Days. Each of the 3 days of the event, the now 10 teams ride in 5 matches. You get a chance to see every rider. It really is exciting. This year on Friday Carolina beat the Oklahoma Wildcatters 261.3 to 87.6. Saturday they lost to the Nashville Stampede 88.75 to 260.75. But on Sunday we saw the most exciting match up against the Arizona Ridge Riders, 88.7 to 88.35. The first 4 riders for each team did not have a qualified ride. However, one Arizona rider had a re-ride. This came after the first four Cowboys came up short. The final Cowboy was also a re-ride. Re-rides occur for various reasons like the bull doesn’t come out of the chute cleanly or some type of interference, etc. The first Arizona re-ride came up short. Then the final Arizona rider had a close 8 second ride. Coach Davis challenged the ride. After a review the rider was disqualified for touching. That meant the Carolina rider had to have a qualified ride and had to score above 88.3. He did the 8 seconds but the Arizona coach challenged the ride saying the Cowboy had a touch. The final decision was that the videos were inconclusive and the ride qualified. Very intense and exciting.
One bonus occurred between a couple of games. They had Junior bull riders riding junior bulls. The children were probably 8 to 9 years old. Future riders. I included one video of them.
