A Story to Share with the Grandkids
Leslie Lange is a very familiar face at horse shows, whether she’s in a training role or judging. But did you know about her Party Bus? Catch up with Leslie about Corey and Lange Rodeo stock contractors and see how their bull, “Party Bus,” made national news this week.
By Delores Kuhlwein
Leslie Lange and Jeff Burley of Leslie Lange Performance Horses are both accomplished and respected horse trainers.
Bulls are incredibly athletic – especially those who are fit and ready for a rodeo bull rider to try his hand staying on for eight seconds. The national news was abuzz this week with video of a rodeo bull that jumped a fence at Sisters Rodeo in central Oregon, one that belongs to Corey and Lange Rodeo.
“We provide animals for rodeos all over the West Coast and Canada including bareback horses, saddle broncs, and bulls,” says Leslie of the PRCA stock contracting company she has owned since 2008, partnering with Mike Corey, who manages the day-to-day needs of the livestock in Moses Lake, Washington, with the help of their pickup man, Jacob Stacy.
One of their young bulls, a three-year-old named Party Bus, made national news Saturday when he jumped a fence during a crowd interaction with music, dimmed lights, and flashlights from the audience members’ phones.
Horse lovers are used to seeing Leslie in her roles of accredited judge and AQHA Professional Horseman.
What made video from the 30-second event newsworthy was Party Bus’s run through the concession area and the contact he made with a few people before returning to the livestock pens, including a woman he tossed into the air.
Nevertheless, she was at the pancake breakfast the next morning with a bit of road rash, but both ladies who’d made contact with Party Bus and didn’t intend to meet a bull so up close and personally “were kind of entertained that they’d gotten taken out by a party bus at the rodeo,” Leslie explains.
Watch the AP News coverage and The Oregonian coverage here:
Bull that jumped the fence at Oregon rodeo forced to retire from competition, owner says | AP News
Watch bull escape Oregon rodeo arena in ‘alarming’ but ‘very rare’ event – oregonlive.com
Roxanne Doogan and Leslie Lange at Arizona Sun Circuit
Though this type of incident has made news before, since rodeos can be inherently risky for everyone present, it was a new experience for Corey and Lange Rodeo. “I have seen it happen before, but as a company, we’ve not had any of our bulls or horses jump out,” Leslie explains. It’s more commonplace for horses to jump out, but as Leslie says, that doesn’t seem to receive much press coverage.
“Bulls are unpredictable, and he’s a young bull we had great hopes for in his professional career,” says Leslie. “On the previous Wednesday night in an extreme bull event in Sisters, Oregon, he left the arena without any problems,” she says. “He wasn’t a known jumper, and this Saturday marked his first PRCA event.”
That Saturday night, Party Bus’s rider had been given a re-ride and the rodeo was conducting a crowd interaction to keep the audience entertained, so they had spilled Party Bus out to go out the same exit at the end of the arena he’d used Wednesday. “The audience had flashlights on, and we think he got disoriented,” Lesle explains. “He made a tour down there, saw other cattle, made another tour around, and we can only guess it was the only spot where there weren’t any flashlights. He was focused on trying to find his friends.”
Party Bus is back home for continuing education, and this image was taken of him by Mike Corey, who was standing just five feet away.
Party Bus can be seen in the video trying to return to where the roping cattle were penned, then continuing to the back side of the bleachers, moving a gentleman out of his way when he stepped into his path, tossed the lady as demonstrated by the video, left the spectator area, then was roped by the pickup men by the livestock pens.
Leslie says though Party Bus was bred to do this job, through 40 years of genetics developed by Mike Corey on the sires’ and the cows’ sides, like any animal, “Bulls can still get scared. The lady that he tossed exemplifies the fact that he’s not a mean bull because he left her behind. We’d never bring any animals we knew had a tendency to jump, and we’re thankful the rodeo was still going on and most of the audience was still in the stands.”
As far as the future for Party Bus, for now, he’s suspended from competition by the PRCA, and he’s back home, ready to embark on some continuing education.
“We obviously can’t recreate that scenario, but we’ll try to introduce him to some high-pressure situations at home,” Leslie says. “The video is scary, and since there have been a lot of bull jumping incidents over the years, with the advent of social media and cameras on phones, it goes instantly viral. Thankfully the injuries were minor, and everybody is home kind of giggling with a story to tell their grandkids.”
