Cindy Rosser

By Georgia Akers

Outside the Arena with... Cindy Rosser

This is my second article on girl power in western sports. If there was rodeo royalty, one of the names that would be mentioned is the Rosser family. Cotton Rosser was a contestant and later stock contractor. He is in the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame. His daughter, Cindy, has followed in her dad’s bootsteps and has made a name for herself as a stock contractor but also of a breeder of some of the best bulls in the business. The one that everyone knows if you follow this sport is a bull named Bushwacker. I think that says it all.

Trying to catch up with Cindy took a little doing in that she is always on the road to bring livestock to a variety of rodeos. She was gracious and patient with my questions. I learned from her things I did not know about western sports such as gymkhanas!

Tell us about yourself

My dad was Cotton Rosser a rodeo contestant who competed in all western sports. My mother, Linda, was a rodeo queen and showed horses. They met at the Cow Palace, National Intercollegiate Rodeo Finals. Later, my dad injured himself and could no longer compete. He bought the Flying U Rodeo in 1956. Originally he bought animals for the rodeo but in the late 1960’s started breeding his own. I have three brothers, Lee, Brian and Reno, and one sister, Katherine. Reno is the only one that is involved in the business. We worked cattle, horses and bulls. That’s all I knew. I was born into rodeo, so that was my passion.

I started running barrels in 4H shows, gymkhanas on a quarter pony. A gymkhanas were riding clubs where there would be games on horseback for kids. My dad paid $50 for a bucking horse that I broke and turned him into a barrel horse. He turned out to be a good one and I made the circuit finals on him in 1969. I was 14 years of age. I rode every horse on the ranch always looking to find that special barrel horse. I always wanted to make the NFR, but work always seemed to get in the way. I did win the WPRA California Circuit Championship in 1982.

I carried the American Flag for many years at western sports events. I trained horses to jump thru a paper horse shoe, Liberty Bell, tee pee, cowboy boot, birthday cake and once we built a space ship to use at the NFR. I designed the openings and trained flag girls for the first ten years of the NFR in Vegas. It was a lot of work but I enjoyed entertaining the spectators.

How did you get involved with being a stock contractor of bucking bulls?

We used to buy all our bucking bulls years ago, then my dad gave Julio and me some F1 heifers (F1 heifers are a first generation cross; in this case, between a Brahma and Hereford) that we first used for Tie Down Roping.

We bred them to a Twisselman bull and we went to the NFR with one of the offspring with a bull named Copenhagen One Eye. We then took those heifers and bred them to Whitewater and Typhoon. That is the combination that champion bull Troubadour was. Then my dad acquired Reindeer Dippin in a load of bulls. We partnered with Jan and Charles Chadwick on Werewolf. Those two ended up being superstar bulls and great sires.

What is most important- breeding or training in raising a bucking bull?

I honestly think the cow is the most important part of a bull’s ability. There are those bulls that you can breed a Jersey cow to and they may buck but it is a gamble.

What do you look for in a bucking bull?

They are all individual animals and some come along faster than the others. The most important thing is heart.

Did you have a favorite bull? Why?

We have had so many superstar bulls. We raised Troubadour, Charlie Bull Ware, Deerango, Countin Cards, Little Red Corvette, Gizmo, Wolf Deer, MJ Holey Kat and of course, Bushwacker, who really helped promote this sport.

My son Mikel was the catalyst for adding other bloodlines to our herd. Cow #13 was the dam to Bushwacker. I still have her and she is 19 and she had a bull calf this year. Mikel loved the Durango bloodline.

What do you like most about this sport?

I love raising a bull and see them come along to be a superstar bucker. I like the people in this sport. It is kind of a big family.

Cotton Rosser with Brian and Cindy.

What do you like the least about this sport?

Cheating to win. I want the little guy or family, who has pulled all their money to raise a nice bucking bull only to be beat out.

We have to take care of the smaller breeders, there are many more of them than the big breeders. We have lost a lot of breeders in the last few years and it is starting to show.

How many days per year do you travel?

I usually travel one third to one half of the year depending on how many rodeos or bull ridings.

Your son died at a very early age of leukemia. Tell us about the scholarship program in his name.

Mikel was diagnosed with Leukemia in May of 2003. He did well for a while. He had a bone marrow transplant in 2004 and even got to meet his donor when she came to the PBR finals. In 2006, he started going downhill and the Leukemia came back. We started the scholarship in 2006 at the Finals in Enid, OK. All the recipients are worthy kids who are involved in ABBI and the western way of life. It is nice to see kids have goals to go on in life, have a path, with ties to agriculture. Mikel wanted to play football in college and then be a stock contractor. He loved the bucking bulls.

If someone was interested in being a stock contractor, what advice would you give?

In being a stock contractor, you have to have a good background in livestock. If not find someone you can trust to help you. It is a tough sport and good bloodlines are the start. That and a lot of luck.

You are involved in this sport full time. Can you earn a living?

It is not easy; we are fortunate to have rodeos to buck our stock. We also do a lot of fair rodeos which might be two events for only an hour long. This year has been horrible with the COVID-19, shutting down rodeos and the fairs. We have a lot of livestock to feed, with hardly any money coming in. So, hoping for the best in 2021.

Honestly the rodeo/stock contracting business is tough. The first year in Las Vegas at the NFR, there were 48 PRCA stock contractors. Now there are close to 80. There are not enough rodeos to support them all. We have been lucky with the California fairs. We have only a couple of PBRs out here, so the rodeos and fairs are our bread and butter.

How is the money calculated?

It is all over the chart. Every rodeo committee is different. Some, you sign a contract and are expected to bring all stock for the rodeo. For example, we might have signed a contract with an obligation to bring a certain number of animals. We must fulfill that contract.

The PBR pays per bull outs. If your bull does not perform, you receive no money.

PRCA varies depending on the rodeo committee. Some committees pay us to actually put on the rodeo from start to finish and hire all the personnel necessary such as contractors, announcers, safety men etc. everything except security.

Sometimes a stock contractor might accept minimum pay as little as $100 just to get his bull some experience. It varies from event to event.

And then you also have the sales aspect if you have a good breeding program.