Meet Bella Brinner, 12, who’s taking bull riding by storm
No bull, Bella Brinner suffered an injury to her lower jaw the first time she was saddled up to compete in a rodeo.
The 12-year-old boy from Narangba proudly wears the resulting scar, tilting his head back to show the white line on his throat.
He has suffered numerous fractures since then and even has his own bull nemesis.
Bella Brinner, 12, is a competitive bull rider.Credit: Jamila Filipino
But that doesn’t stop him from riding another one. He exudes excitement at the idea of his next journey and shrugs off the question of why you would set out again after being injured.
“If I stop, people say, ‘He’ll stop because it hurts,'” says Bella, wrapped in a picnic blanket outside the ring at Woodford Rodeo, about an hour and a half from Brisbane’s CBD.
“But I kept coming back and more people started talking to me. Take me in.
“I had to show them that I wanted to be a part of this. And now a lot of people are talking to me. I even had people I don’t know cheering for me.”
Bella has been riding bulls for over a year after catching the disease from her older sister Mia.
“If he’s going to do it, I’ll do it too,” he says.
Bella is in the middle of the ride at the Woodford Rodeo.Credit: Jamila Filipino
Mia is no longer competing. The National Rodeo Association (NRA) does not allow women to compete in the Open Bull Ride category, so when she got older, she dropped out of the U15 Mini Bull Ride category.
“The NRA said, ‘We don’t want girls 15 and over riding bikes,'” Bella says.
Many of the rodeos close to his home in south-east Queensland are part of the NRA circuit.
Other organizations such as the Australian Pro Rodeo Association and the Australian Bushmen’s Campdraft and Rodeo Association have no age limit for women competing in bull riding. Professional Bull Riders overseas and in Australia also do not restrict women from competing.
The NRA did not respond to this imprint’s questions about its restrictions on female competitors.
Bella behind the parachutes at the Woodford Rodeo.Credit: Jamila Filipino
“There are a few girls who want to start, but they’re too old,” Bella says. “They would have to go somewhere else, and they don’t really want to travel that much, so they don’t do that.”
It doesn’t make sense to Bella that they don’t let girls turn 15.
“Girls can be really good. Half the girls are better than the boys.”
Bella is currently the top-ranked girl in the NRA’s U12 Mini Bull Ride category. The Woodford Rodeo on November 15 was his last show as part of this category as he entered the U15 competition.
Next year Bella will race in Texas and represent Australia at the Youth Bull Riders World Finals.
She’ll be the only girl on a team of 14 cyclists her age, and she says that’s part of the excitement.
“It’s really exciting to show that there is a girl who rides a bull.
“You may be afraid, but you have to jump on the bull. If you jump on him, it’s okay, because you did your best.”
Bella is getting ready for her first ride of the day.Credit: Jamila Filipino
When it comes to monsters, the cuter the name, the scarier they can be.
“When I first started, I rode this bull called TikTok,” Bella says. “He threw me down and I hung up the phone, and he was pressing my shoulder.
“I got up anyway. I wasn’t crying. I got up and ran.”
At another rodeo, Bella jumped on a bull named Cupcake.
“It wasn’t very nice,” he says. “Cupcake is terrible.”
As for his least favorite bull; His name is Floppy and their paths first crossed at the Canungra Rodeo, 30 kilometers inland from the Gold Coast.
“Never again,” he says. “It was very rude.
“We went out of the gutters… and he kept me busy. Then he stepped on my leg and I forgot to get up. I thought my foot was broken.”
“The bull passed over me three times.
“I had a scar on my leg, like it was open. I had a scar on my elbow, I had a little cut on my arm. Then my hand was bruised all over.”
But a month later Bella and Floppy returned to the ring in the Sunshine Coast town of Nambour.
Bella runs to safety after her first ride of the day.Credit: Jamila Filipino
“They said, ‘You’ve got this, you’re the girl in pink, you have to ride this bull,’” she says.
“I jump, he comes over, looks at me, starts running at me. There was no fence, so I had to run the other way.”
Bella has a grudge against bulls. The floppy disk is on that list.
“If you crush me, I will never love you. He will only crush me.”
Humidity is a pain at Woodford Rodeo most of the day. Bella sits in the shade of an umbrella and we watch the events that precede her, knowing that at any moment she must leave and prepare for the journey.
Maybe it’s the heat, but the bulls seem crankier than usual. It seems like everyone is struggling to get out of the parachutes, let alone make it through qualifying.
An hour before Bella leaves, the skies clear and it rains.
The storm meant Bella would compete in a muddy arena at the Woodford Rodeo.Credit: Jamila Filipino
Crowds flee the show grounds, some taking shelter under a nearby porch as lightning strikes so close to us. The rain gradually gives way to drizzle and the contestants prepare to compete in what has now become a mud pit.
It’s hard to miss Bella with her gear on; Her now trademark look includes a hot pink helmet and pink headpieces with gold tassels. Bella saw other girls being encouraged to mingle with boys too, but obviously decided to take a different approach.
On his first trip, his bull leaves the gate too early and is briefly pushed back. There are confusing murmurs that it will be ridden again, but the show goes on.
On his second trip, he slips into a mud puddle. His chest and half of his face are now brown instead of pink.
Bella was thrown into the mud on her second ride of the day.Credit: Jamila Filipino
For Bella, a big part of the sport is accepting the things she can and cannot control. He can’t control the weather or what the bull does when he gets into the chute, but it’s still his parachute. The best advice he ever got was to not let anyone tell him what to do when he gets in there.
“They’re not trying to do it on purpose, but they’re saying ‘come on, hurry up, hurry up,'” Bella says.
He’s seen people give up quickly because they’re not ready, but now he knows he has to hurry.
“I found out if the bull was successful, don’t worry,” he says.
“Once a bull was lying down and I was smiling. I don’t know why. I felt a happy energy pass through me.
“[The bull] He’s trying to beat you because bull riding is a mind game. If you don’t have the right mindset, you can’t do very well.”
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