Rider bucking bareback odds

June 24, 2009 12:30 am

— By Rich Brown
rbrown@joplinglobe.com
NEOSHO, Mo. — The bucks that D.V. Fennell makes come from the bucks he takes. And this Neosho man takes a lot of the latter.
Fennell competes with bareback riders on a world-class level in rodeos throughout the United States and sometimes beyond.
In this week’s rankings by the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, the 35-year-old Fennell is ranked sixth in the world with earnings of $40,166 thus far in the season.
With the rodeo season continuing into September, Fennell is nearly certain to break his previous best-season total of $44,140, providing he keeps injuries to a minimum and stays healthy.
Although he has been riding bucking broncos, as well as an occasional bull, for two decades, he was forced to cut back from 2001 to 2005.
“Injuries played a big part in that layoff,” he said. “I had two major surgeries, including one for a torn rotator cuff in my shoulder.”
At the urging of his friend, Justin McDaniel, Porum, Okla., ranked fourth in bareback world standings, Fennell decided to go back full-time on the circuit in 2005.
“You have to want to be a bareback rider, have the right frame of mind and take it pretty seriously,” he said. “If you don’t, you can get hurt. You can have a bucket of talent but if you don’t have the want-to or drive, you won’t succeed.
“Sometimes you get the chickens and sometimes the feathers. A lot of guys just put half the effort into it and never get the gold buckles or world championships.”
Fennell said he logs from 75,000 to 90,000 miles a year driving to rodeos, as well as countless more miles flying.
“I am gone between six and eight months out of the year,” he said. “There is some down time in the winter, fall and spring but in July, August and September, just plan on being gone.”
He estimates that he was 8 or 9 years old when his father, a ranch cowboy in Utah, introduced him to his first rodeo.
“It was the Little Britches Rodeo for kids in Blanding, Utah,” he said. “I got to ride my first horse ... and calf ... that day.”
He competed in amateur rodeos for about five years before heading into the professional ranks, where he has been for the past 15 seasons.
Fennell attended two colleges on full-ride rodeo scholarships. He started at Vernon Regional Junior College, Vernon, Texas, where he was a member of the national champion men’s rodeo team. Then he transferred to Southwestern Oklahoma State University at Weatherford. However, he opted to join the PRCA circuit full-time rather than complete his degree.
Fennell’s wife, Julie, a personal trainer, is owner of Team Fit Studio in Neosho.
“She burned out a long time ago in going to rodeos with me,” said Fennell, whose results can be tracked on his Web site at www.dvfennell.wordpress.com.
Fennell said he has never entertained thoughts of any other kind of work.
“I have never thought of anything else as a serious career,” he said. “A lot of the rodeo cowboys hang it up by the time they turn 35 but I figure I have four or five years left.”

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