Photo by Jenny Kirk Bullfighter Daren Chambers distracts a bull, giving high school bull rider Dakota Morris time to get over the fence and to safety.

MARSHALL — The bulls were big and strong, but that didn’t deter some of the high school competitors from climbing atop the beasts during the Marshall Region 4 Rodeo on Saturday.

“I do it for the adrenaline rush,” Truman ninth-grader Cody Owens said. “I’ve been riding bulls for about five or six years.”

While Owens wasn’t able to stay on for the full ride, he felt “it was good.”

It was a rough night for the high school bull riders as only 1 of 10 was able to score points. Dakota Morris got a tough draw with the bull named White Lightning.

“He’s a mean son-of-a-gun,” said Paige Giske of River Falls, Wisconsin. “He’s the meanest one. He usually goes after the clown who is sitting on the fence. Last week in Moville, Iowa, a guy was trying to get over the fence and the bull helped him.”

A similar occurrence happened at the Lyon County Fairgrounds on Saturday as White Lightning chased a bullfighter up and over the fence.

“That was frightening,” one of the fans said.

Competing students are part of the Minnesota High School Rodeo Association, which is a self-supporting non-profit organization that includes statewide involvement of students in grades 6-12. The organization claims that no other activity in history was ever developed which so embodies the traditions and history of an entire way of life.

One of the MHSRA’s unique features is that the high school students actually compete on the same stock that is used by college and professional rodeo contestants. While rodeo is not recognized as a high school sport, it does require its members to play by the rules, which includes keeping grades at the same level as it takes to play high school sports.

Pine River brothers, 14-year-old Owen Carlson and 11-year-old Garrett Carlson, also competed all weekend in Marshall.

“I do chute dogging,” Garrett Carlson said. “It’s like steer wrestling, but you’re not jumping off a horse.”

Along with his brother, Owen Carlson competes at the junior high rodeo level.

“You take the steers right out of the chutes,” he said. “You have to flip them.”

Owen Carlson is also a bull rider.

“The bull was just a little shorter than me,” he said. “The junior high bull’s weight is between 1,500 and 1,800 pounds.”

On Saturday, Carlson said he was glad they are required to wear protective vests.

“My back hurts because the bull stepped on my back,” Owen Carlson said.

Numerous other students competed in other categories, including breakaway, tie-down roping, team roping, barrels, goat tying, poles and ribbon roping.