Is a YETI World Championship Next for Chiseled at the World Finals After Winning PBR Regular-Season Bull Title and PRCA Bull of the Year Honors?

By: Justin Felisko

PUEBLO, Colo. – Chiseled has earned himself a well-deserved break for the next few weeks at home in Ardmore, Oklahoma, before the talented D&H Cattle Company bovine athlete heads to Arlington, Texas, in pursuit of a historical YETI World Championship at the PBR World Finals (Nov. 12-15).

The No. 1 bull in the world has traveled more than 20,000 miles this year across the United States, and the hard work of Chiseled and D&H Cattle Company has paid off already with a series of significant accolades in the PBR and PRCA.

Chiseled clinched the PBR’s regular-season bull title, and an accompanying $25,000 bonus, when he bucked off Mauricio Moreira (3.35 seconds) this past weekend at the PBR Cooper Tires Take The Money and Ride, presented by Union Home Mortgage, for a 46.25-point bull score in Nampa, Idaho.

The 2019 ABBI Classic Champion’s fifth score of 46.25 points or higher in 2020 helped him barely edge past No. 2 Smooth Operator for the regular-season title inside the Ford Idaho Center.

“I was kind of holding my breath there if we were going to be there or not,” Page said on Monday after there were some question marks as to whether D&H Cattle Company would buck Chiseled in Nampa. “That is a good bonus, and I am happy the PBR stepped up there with it.”

 
Chiseled will now take a slim 0.03-point lead on Smooth Operator into the 2020 PBR World Finals in Arlington, Texas, on Nov. 12-15 where he will look to win the 2020 YETI World Championship and $100,000.

The 2020 YETI World Champion Bull will be the animal with the highest average bull score from their top eight regular-season outs and two outs at the PBR World Finals.

If Chiseled can hold off Smooth Operator and another handful of challengers, the 5-year-old bull could become only the third animal athlete to win the PBR’s World Championship and the PRCA’s Bull of the Year accolade in the same season.

“That is always the goal with them good ones,” Page said. “I get them qualified for both (Finals), and if it works out, and the bull riders like him in the PRCA, then you get that option. I try to get them in front of them, and it is all I can do.”

PRCA bull riders determine the PRCA Bull of the Year via a vote, whereas the PBR crowns its World Champion Bull using a points system.

Chiseled received 24 points to win the PRCA’s Pendleton Whisky “Let ‘er Buck” Bull of the Year title. Three-time PBR World Champion SweetPro’s Bruiser finished runner-up with 14 points. Magic Poison was third with 10 points.

H.D. credited his father, Dillon, and the rest of his crew for helping him continue to be able operate multiple pens of bulls that are capable of competing on the Unleash The Beast, Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour, PRCA, ABBI and other tours.

“My dad is more beat up than anyone, and he is out there busting it, trying to make it work,” H.D. said. “It takes a big effort to pull it all off, that is for sure. I got some really good guys here at home that are busting it every day, seven days a week, trying to make sure every bull is fed and things are done here. It takes quite the camp to make it work.”

Bruiser was the last bull to pull off the monumental accomplishment in 2017 when he won championships in the PBR and PRCA. The other bull to win top bull honors in the PBR and PRCA was the legendary Bodacious in 1995.

 
“It would be an honor,” Page said. “It is a really big accomplishment. You got your head down, and you are trying to keep them sound, and you are trying to keep them on the road. Of course, I am working toward a PBR world title every year, and I am hoping to get two good outs out the Finals. It is all out of your hands. You just try to keep your bulls in the best position and in the best shape to perform at a high level. If everything else falls in place, then there is a chance.”

Chiseled has been dealing with soreness the past few weeks, and D&H Cattle Company almost decided to withdraw him from Nampa. The two-time PBR World Finals qualifier responded well to shockwave therapy treatment last week, though, and the Pages decided to buck Chiseled in the 15/15 Bucking Battle.

That decision proved worthwhile in the regular-season bull title race with Smooth Operator also posting a 46.25-point score when he bucked off Brennon Eldred in 5.26 seconds.

“Those ones that have the mental toughness are the special ones,” Page said. “There are a ton of bulls that have the physical ability. You can’t put a tape measure on the toughness, on the mental and physical toughness of Chiseled. That is what separates those great ones from the other ones. There are a lot of bulls that won’t buck a lick when they are sore. If they do buck, they are not going to be special by any account.”

Chiseled is 10-3 on the premier series in 2020, and world No. 1 Jose Vitor Leme rode him for 94 points in Salt Lake City in Utah.

“They have a lot of differences,” Leme said of the top two bulls in the world earlier this year. “Smooth is stronger. He moves a lot to the front. It’s hard to stay close to your bull rope. He’s older (than Chiseled). He knows what he needs to do to drop off cowboys. Chiseled is a young bull. He just wants to buck, and it doesn’t matter if (a cowboy) will buck off or not. That is my sensation when I get on them.”

 
D&H Cattle Company will take extra care of Chiseled in the coming weeks leading up to the World Finals to make sure he is healthy and ready to pursue a $100,000 World Championship. Chiseled could become the fourth ABBI Classic Champion to win a PBR World Championship as well.

Page added that they will have a veterinarian come to the ranch, and Chiseled will go through some additional treatment on his hocks in preparation for the World Finals.

Chiseled has been known to buck and kick so hard that he has had multiple instances this year in which he drilled the back of the bucking chutes, such as in August when a re-ride flag was thrown when he hit the chutes in Fort Worth, Texas, leaving with Ezekiel Mitchell.

In February, Chiseled injured his hock at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo, and he had to sit out for a month to recover.

Page said he is considering using a kickpad at AT&T Stadium in the bucking chutes, just as he did last year with Bruiser at select events, to help create a safer environment for Chiseled when he is bucking.

“I am going to try and get one of them for him at the Finals,” Page said. “He kicks it every time. I don’t know. He is out of a Showtime daughter, and she goes back to (Mossy Oak) Mudslinger’s mother, and there is a long line of them that has a history of doing it. Stone Sober was bad about doing the same thing. Genetically, that is just the way he is engineered. They all seem to kick the back of the chute like that.”

Chiseled, though, has continued to bounce back through it all, and he has become the new face of D&H Cattle Company and one of the rankest bulls in the world.

“That is a credit to that bull that he has overcome some pretty tough blows this year,” Page said. “He stuck his hock in the chute in San Antonio leaving through there. That was about a month trying to get that thing healed up, or trying to. Here lately, he has just been really kicking the back of the chutes so hard that he is getting his hocks sore. I am glad we got a couple weeks now that we can let him rest.

“As hard as he has been trying to buck with as sore as he has been, I would look for him to be back to his old self at the Finals.”

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media

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