The biggest star in La Fiesta de los Vaqueros is a stunning blonde - with four hooves, horns and a snot problem.
Little Lightning has drawn 26 riders since 2008. Twenty-six times, the bull has bucked them off.
"He hasn't been rode since … well, he's never been rode," said Rhett Beutler of Beutler & Son Rodeo Co., the stock company that's been providing Tucson Rodeo livestock since 1952. "And it's going on three years now."
Little Lightning will make his grand return for today's "short round" at the Tucson Rodeo Grounds. The top 12 finishers from the last week of competition will face off during the two-hour finale, with the winners bringing home the bulk of a $400,000 weekly purse.
Bull riding, the marquee event, is saved for last. The riders who hang on for eight seconds stay in line for a $7,000 grand prize.
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Those who get bucked, lose - and that's only if they're lucky.
Cody Whitney seriously injured his right knee and suffered scratches and scrapes from his nose - he needed two stitches - to his legs following a tussle with a bull named Apache on Saturday. Whitney's spur got stuck in his rope just out of the gates, hanging him from the rear of the bull like a rag doll. He remained on the ground, motionless, for about two minutes before being escorted gingerly into a nearby medical trailer.
Whitney said late Saturday that he couldn't remember the ride, and feared that he tore the posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. By bull riding standards, he considered himself fortunate. Whitney said he still hopes to ride next week.
"When you get hurt, it's bad. But it's part of it," he said. "I'm lucky I walked away from it."
Whitney wasn't the only bull rider to suffer Saturday. Austin Ambrose, Whitney's traveling partner, had to be helped out of the arena after suffering a knee injury. Both cowboys were scheduled to appear at a rodeo in Scottsdale later Saturday night; both, understandably, canceled.
Saturday's mishaps underscore one of the least-known parts of rodeo: the value of the animal.
In the three roughstock events - saddle bronc, bareback riding and bull riding - the horse or bull counts as half the final score. The cowboy's performance counts for the other half.
The key, competitors say, is to draw an animal that's aggressive enough to earn a big score but ridable enough to handle.
Little Lightning headlines a group of Beutler & Son bulls that should make the remaining cowboys earn their money today. Crooked Nose has bucked off 75 percent of its riders in the last three years; Aches and Pains has knocked off 77 percent since 2005.
Voodoo Child, the king of the Beutler & Sons bulls, will not compete in Tucson - and maybe that's a good thing.
He's been ridden once, ever.
"A lot of it's on the bull, but a lot of it's on you, too," said 21-year-old Sam Wilson, who rode Summer Wages to an 86 score on Saturday. "You want a tough bull, but a ridable bull."
Little Lightning is tough. Ridable? Not so much.
Though he's only medium-sized by bull standards, Little Lightning makes up for it with athleticism and a stunning first move - hence the name.
Standon Stalls, one of the Tucson Rodeo's "pick-up men," laughed when asked how Little Lightning moves.
"Nobody's ever been on him long enough to know," he said.
An hour after Saturday's competition, Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association officials paired off bulls and riders for today's finals using a time-honored system involving a computer and, seriously, poker chips.
Ardie Maier, the week's hottest rider, drew Little Lightning. His approach will be the same as the rest of the bull riders in Tucson's biggest rodeo day of the year.
"You just close your eyes and hope for the best," Wilson said. "And then you let the good Lord handle the rest."
