This is shared from Slade Long, owner and operator of probullstats.com. Slade has compiling, researching and logging stats and numbers on bulls and bull riders for several years and in my opinion, knows more than anybody else in the business when it comes to comparison based on numbers. Check out his article explaining the difference of bulls of the past and today and how it has affected the numbers in bull riding.
From ProBullStats :
The single question I'm most often asked here is how bull riding is statistically different from what it was 10, 20 or 30 years ago. The answer is simple to come up with using technology. Bull riders just aren't as good as they once were. It's fairly easy to prove this given the data we have. It's also incorrect. It would be closer to the truth to say that bulls are better than they once were, and that can also be shown to some extent, but that isn't the whole truth either.
The more accurate theory as to why bull riders today do not have the gaudy riding percentages of yesteryear is difficult to show in hard numbers, because of a lack of data and because of shifting subjectivity inherent in judging. The most accurate answer is that the WEAKEST bulls today are way stronger than they used to be. Twenty-five years ago, there were bulls as rank as the best bulls we have today. But, if you look at all the bulls used in the sport then, you would find that bulls that were weak enough to be ridden by a rider of average ability were used far more often than they are now. Therefore, all riders from past eras tended to face a greater number of bulls that were weak enough to be ridden by riders of average ability, and naturally, more of them were ridden.
Even this doesn't tell the whole story. The situation riders were in then also helped them develop skills that made them better riders. The skills needed to ride bulls successfully are developed by experience. When riders faced a greater number of weak bulls, they stayed on them more often, and stayed on them longer more often, which gained them valuable experience. The weaker bulls were often less predictable in how they bucked, and this allowed riders to experience every different kind of move a bull might make while bucking and use that experience to improve.
We could look at riders today and using our modern technology we can easily see they aren't as efficient as the better riders from the 1980's and scold them for lack of effort or whatever. Or, we could put forth a little effort of our own to understand how things are different.
In my mind it makes sense to provide some venues for developing riders to compete on weaker stock than what we see at the top levels today. Former World Champion Cody Custer has been an outspoken advocate of this when it comes to youth bull riding.
It's important that riders develop the tools they need to compete on the best bulls, and develop the confidence to push themselves to the highest levels. When riders stop wanting to improve beyond a certain level, then the blame must fall on them, but if they've "learned" that they can't improve by constantly competing over their heads from the beginning, and by constantly being told as much by riders from previous generations, then we bear some of the blame as well. We should teach young riders, rather than just telling them they aren't as good as the guys from the old days. The truth is, many of them are every bit as good, and have just as much potential as any rider ever had. They need to know how to develop - not how to act tough.
