Editor’s Note: This interview first appeared in Path Finders, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each week, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Like what you see here? Join the mailing list and receive more conversations like this in your inbox.
Emma Treu rode her first bull three years ago. Now, she’s one of the leading female bull riders on the gay rodeo circuit, where men and women compete equally in all events. I talked with Emma a few days before the 34th Zia Rodeo, held annually in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Enjoy our conversation about how it feels to ride a bull, Stetson faux-pas, and finding community with the International Gay Rodeo Association.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Anya Petrone Slepyan, The Daily Yonder: How did you get into bull riding? What was it like the first time you rode a bull?
Emma Treu: One of the things bull riders do – and this is very embarrassing but I’m just gonna be honest with it – we walk around in our gear the entire rodeo. We’re gonna have our spurs on, our chaps on. We could take those off, but we don’t. We want everybody to see us, and so when I was a kid, I’d see these bull riders walking around in their gear. And the big thing I saw in them was fearlessness. I thought, these guys are not scared of anything. And then I came to a point in my life where I was experiencing immense fear. Your parents, society, everybody tells you you can be whatever you want to be, and then you grow up and you’re like, “oh no, you can’t!” And then you turn 30 and it hits again, and you’re like, “no, I really can. I’ve just got to put in the work.”
My big thing was pulling what I liked out of the people that I looked up to, and bull riders were the ones. I thought, these people are fearless. They’re not scared. Right now, I’m scared. I want to be fearless. And so I signed up to ride steers at first because steers are castrated bulls, so they’re a little less mean, they have a little less testosterone. The first time I got up there, I looked down at that steer, and I was just shaking. And I was like “I can’t do this.” I distinctly remember turning to the cowboy next to me and I said, “hey, man, I’m genuinely afraid. Is this safe for me to do?” And he had this big plug of chew in his mouth, and he spit, and he said, “I’m scared every time.” It all clicked for me. It was like I was admiring this fearlessness that doesn’t exist, or it does exist, but fearlessness is not not being afraid. Fearlessness is doing something while you’re afraid, and being able to overcome that. And when that hit, I tell you what, it is a rush. You’re fully present, fully there. And it’s like nothing else.
DY: Can you talk a bit more about the experience of riding a bull? What does it feel like?
ET: Oh, absolutely! So you stand up there in the chute, and it’s pretty loud. They’re typically playing “Free Bird” or something like that, and you hear the crowd. But as soon as you slide down onto that animal, it goes quiet. And the one thing that I hear is my heart beating against my chest, and that animal breathing. So I really try to listen to his breath so that I can match that because it’s really not riding a bull. It’s dancing with him. I’m not in control at all, and I think that’s another reason I love it so much. I get to let go. When that left shoulder dips. I’m gonna slide my left hip down. My hand’s gonna go behind my head, following his lead and being able to create something beautiful. When you hit that, the only way I can describe it is that the world makes sense. You hit that one moment, and oftentimes it is a fraction of a second, where you sync up with one of the most powerful animals in the world, and yeah, that’s pretty cool.
Treu rides a bull named Dopey. She nearly covered, but fell off just before the timer hit eight seconds. (Photo by Anya Slepyan/Daily Yonder)
DY: Do you have any routines when you prepare to ride?
ET: I try to thank people for coming out. Just thank every vendor, walk around, and do some stretching. Really light stretching because I’m old and I don’t bend. I put dip in my mouth when I ride. I take a big plug of America’s Best and put it right in the side of my lip, which is dumb. I could choke. When I put on all my gear, I do my left shoe before my right shoe. I zip the vest once, unzip twice, zip once. There’s a lot of superstition, a lot of superstition, and I ride with the Queen of Hearts in my pocket.
DY: Why the Queen of Hearts?
ET: Princess Di. I know that sounds silly, but they called her the Queen of Hearts, and she’s everything I want to be in a person. She went out there and did it. She didn’t just say she was. I also have a little bit of a reputation at some rodeos, so I lean into that a little bit…
DY: Fair enough! Tell me a little bit more about how you got involved with the International Gay Rodeo Association and about the community that’s there.
ET: I was introduced to IGRA at a pride event in Santa Fe. I was wearing a felt Stetson [hat] in June, which is a big cowboy no-no. Your felt comes on for the frost, you don’t wear a felt hat in the summer. But I had just got the felt, and I was really excited. And I also spent $600 on a hat. And I’m gonna wear a $600 hat whenever I want. So I was wearing this cowboy hat, and Brian Helander, the president of the organization, came up to me, and he was like, “Hey, have you ever thought about competing in rodeo?” And I was like, “I don’t have an animal.” And he’s like, “It is not the kind of rodeo you’re thinking of. This is so inclusive, so welcoming.” And so that year I went, and I saw what it was, and I decided, I’m doing this next year.
I’ve met my family through that, people who are genuinely my family. And what I really love about it as well, there are so many diverse people, and I mean politically, religiously, race, of course. But my entire life, I’ve existed in the gray. I’ve been too much of this for one group, too much of that for another group, and when I found these people, I was accepted wholeheartedly for who I was. I don’t know how to describe it. Family doesn’t even seem like the right word. Those people are home.
Treu (left) celebrates with other competitors at the Zia Rodeo. (Photo by Anya Slepyan/Daily Yonder)
DY: You said yourself that bull riding isn’t the smartest thing in the world to do, but has it given you any wisdom to share?
ET: Understanding the difference between grit and spite. Doing something because you’re gritty rather than doing something because you’re spiteful. I think I started this journey because I wanted to prove that women could ride bulls, and that’s not what it’s about anymore. Do things for yourself, not because you hate others, or because you have something to prove. It’s freeing.
This interview first appeared in Path Finders, a weekly email newsletter from the Daily Yonder. Each Monday, Path Finders features a Q&A with a rural thinker, creator, or doer. Join the mailing list today, to have these illuminating conversations delivered straight to your inbox.
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The post Q&A: Bull Rider Emma Treu appeared first on The Daily Yonder.
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