927 Mayhem

By Kelly B. Robbins

Here’s a news flash for all you diehard bull riding fans: There is a young bull named 927 Mayhem, an up-and-coming two-year old to keep your eyes on! He’s a really good bovine athlete, and now whenever he shows up to compete at a Futurity event, he’s starting to live up to his name. He’s beginning to create mayhem in the minds of the stock contractors who watch him out jump, out kick, and out buck their own young bovine athletes for a piece of the prize. He recently showed his stuff by winning the Open Futurity at the Evolution TwoBulls Challenge in Duncan, Oklahoma in April by being scored 92.75 points! He was also the high marked bull of the entire event!

“Mayhem has finished in the money in his last four outs,” owner Todd Malabanan revealed. “He won a futurity in Ash Flatt, Arkansas a few weeks ago. He earned a check last weekend in Belton, Texas with a good, not great, trip for him, but he scored 90.6 points. Hopefully, he’ll continue to get better. I’d like to take him as far as he is capable of going.”

It has not been an easy road for Todd or for Mayhem. “He’s been exciting at times, and very trying at other times,” Todd shared. “He was a really hot calf. He was mean, and he got riled up pretty easily. He was focused more on fighting than bucking. I used to have a hard time getting him in the trailer to go to an event. Now he just walks right into the trailer and turns and looks at you. He seems to take the hauling a lot better now.”

Bruce Hedden of Rocking H Bucking Bulls in Grapevine, Arkansas, bred and raised Mayhem. “I usually sell all of my calves,” Bruce stated. “I held two calves back for potential breeding bulls. Their dams had never had bull calves. These calves just stood out. I saw something special in them. They showed a lot of intensity in the beginning. They bucked and played and were really athletic. Todd came by and saw the calves. I asked him to take them and buck them, to get a few trips on them, and he agreed. 927 Mayhem was alert, athletic and always on the go. He had potential to be special.”

“I had decided I was going to get out,” Bruce continued. “I had put all my chips in on these calves. 927 was bucking good at Todd’s house. But on the road, he started traveling out in the arena instead of turning back in. I decided he just wasn’t going to be a good dummy bull. I told Todd I wanted to sell him. I told him I would sell him to Todd or bring him home. Todd bought him.”

“Bruce asked me to take them and buck them,” Todd explained, “to get a few trips on them. I agreed and started bucking them. After several trips, Bruce decided that Mayhem was not going to make it bucking with a dummy and wanted to get rid of him. So, I bought him.”

There was no crystal ball that Todd was able to gaze into and see what the future held for young Mayhem. “I bought him because I saw glimpses of his natural talent when he bucked at the house,” Todd claimed. “The problem was, as a young bull, he was not real sure of his feet. He would buck really good at home, but when I took him on the road, he would misstep, like he was trying to figure out where his feet were. Like his mind was going a hundred and twenty, and his feet were going a hundred. I kept working with him and bucking him at home. I have to give a good friend of mine, Donnie O’Brien of Rafter O Bucking Bulls, some credit on the success with this calf. I would try something, then I would call Donnie and he would tell me something else to try. We tried enough with him that we finally started seeing some positive progress. I knew if he could put it together on the road, he had the potential to be a winner. But I also figured if he didn’t make it as a dummy calf, I would like to see what he would do as a derby bull.”

“927 Mayhem’s current success and future potential is no accident,” declared David Locke of Locke Bucking Bulls. “We have a motto: The Great Ones are bred to be that way.” He went on to explain Mayhem’s talented bloodline. “927 Mayhem’s sire was 027 Mayhem, who was a Locke bull and a top ten finisher at the 2012 American Heritage. Bruce Hedden and I purchased 027 after he was retired, to use as a breeding bull. Bruce used him first over his Cajun Blast daughters, one of which was 927 Mayhem’s dam. Locke Bucking Bulls also raised Cajun Blast, who was later a PBR short round bull owned by Circle T Ranch and Rodeo.”

“027 Mayhem was a son of Little Johnny, also a Locke raised bucking bull bred by Dillon Page and Tom Teague, and 027 Mayhem’s dam was a Lyon’s King daughter. Little Johnny was a son of D&H Cattle Company’s 2006 PBR World Champion Bull Mossy Oak Mudslinger. Little Johnny produced 027 Mayhem along with Locke and Loaded, who became the UBBI Classic Champion and a PBR short round bull. He also produced Jitter Critter, the Bordertown Casino Futurity champion, Packin’ Heat, who was in the top five of the 2012 ABBI finals, and Muscles and Shovels, a PBR Finals short round bull. That’s quite a pedigree!”

927 Mayhem resides at Malabanan Farms in Clinton, Arkansas. Todd runs 35 bred to buck cows and has 15 or so bulls. “I grew up around rodeo,” Todd reflected. “I worked the back pens for a small local rodeo association, team roped, and even tried my hand on a few bulls when I was young.”

Now that 927 Mayhem is in the spotlight, I asked Todd what’s in the future for this exciting young bucking bull. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed. We are the underdog against the field of calves that are going up and down the road right now. I just hope the best is yet to come from 927,” Todd concluded. “We hope Mayhem keeps on the path he has started down. We’ll try to keep him healthy, and hope he continues what he is doing.”