Hometown cowboy: pro rodeo dream realized at Abbyville

Jacob Welker’s hand shook more than usual as he painted a W and J onto his face using the side mirror of a truck. He’d gone through the same routine many times before, but this day was different.

For the last five years, Welker worked as a bullfighter at amateur rodeos, but since he was a boy, his dream has been to fight a Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeo, specifically his hometown rodeo in Abbyville, Kansas.

That dream came true May 18 when he stepped into the Abbyville arena.

“I’ve always told my dad from day one that I wanted to fight this rodeo,” he said.

Welker is from Pretty Prairie, but his father’s family is from Abbyville. He now lives north of town as well. He’s considered it his hometown rodeo since watching bullfighters as a boy.

Rodeo bullfighters employ similar tactics to those of Spanish bullfighters — without the capes and spears — but have a very different job. During the bull riding event, when a rider is bucked off or dismounts, bullfighters in the arena draw the bulls attention to themselves to keep riders from getting hit or trampled. Fighters have to be quick, and willing to take a hit from a 2,000-pound animal.

“It’s been my dream since I was a little kid, and I’m one of those people who want to give my dream a shot,” Welker said. “I took my first shot when I was a senior in high school and went to a rodeo school in Derby, Kansas. I was there for three days and fought some bulls and just fell in love with it.”

Welker’s basketball coach wasn’t too pleased that his starting point guard was missing school for a rodeo, but Welker has never looked back since.

He’s fought at amateur rodeos in Newton and Attica, and two summers ago he went to Cody, Wyoming and fought bulls every night in July. In Cody, he got a taste of how dangerous the role can be.

“I got kicked in the face in Wyoming and broke my nose from the bridge to the tip, but it broke straight,” Welker said. “I had some stitches near my eye and I’ve dislocated and broken a few fingers and things.”

Bullfighters often take a beating, but rarely see the spotlight. Welker could have been a tie-down roper, a steer wrestler or a bull rider, but those aren’t the cowboys he looked up to. He remembers being a small boy, around 5 years old, and watching slack — overflow events at the end of the rodeo — for five or six hours.

“I remember watching Sam Gress from Hutchinson, I looked up to him a lot and the Rumfords took him in,” Welker said. “And a guy I fought with last weekend, Wade Kunze, has been there since 2004, so I grew up watching him. Ever since I was a kid, they’ve caught my eye, even the barrelmen. If my dad didn’t know where I was, he could bet I was out back of the chutes talking to the fighters or the rodeo clown.”

While they may not see as much of the spotlight, riders want the best bullfighters watching their back, so to fight in the PRCA, Welker needed to be a card-carrying member.

He gained experience doing amateur rodeos and bull riding events, and when he felt he was ready, he sent notice to the PRCA. Welker had to send the PRCA a list of five events he would be bullfighting at, and an evaluator would show up to one of them unannounced.

Welker was evaluated at a bull riding event in Emporia, where he was deemed good enough to receive his temporary permit, which allows him to fight at five PRCA rodeos this year. After those five, he’ll be evaluated again to determine whether he’ll be issued a membership card.

Abbyville was Welker’s first rodeo, and over the summer he’ll fight at rodeos in Minnesota, Nebraska and two in Wisconsin.

Freestyle bullfighting — where bullfighters are the stars of the show and showcase their moves in competition — has seen a resurgence in recent years, but Welker said he’s more focused on the protection aspect and keeping things old-school.

Many bullfighters in the PRCA or Professional Bull Riding circuits have ditched the facepaint and begun wearing shorts and jerseys. But Welker prefers the traditional style.

He wears a protective vest and leg protection, but still wears western shirts, suspenders and baggy, cut up jeans. And of course, he paints his face.

“Back in the day, the funnyman was the bullfighter,” Welker said. “But now they’re separate. I like the old-school, ‘rodeo clown’ way with the baggies and the face paint.”

With all the injuries and hard work on the path to fighting a PRCA rodeo, Welker said one challenge along the way was finding a face paint design.

“It’s actually pretty hard to come up with unique face paint when you’re starting out,” he said. “I used to do a star with crosses in the middle because no one was doing stars, but it’s pretty hard to do a star when you’re in a hurry.”

He finally settled on a “W” connected with a “J,” which he said will be his brand if he gets a herd of cattle someday.

Welker is looking ahead to the next rodeos and passing the time working at Custom Mills. While he expects to be a little shaky putting on his paint at those rodeos, nothing will compare to his first professional fight in his hometown.

“I’ve had some people come watch me, but it was at Newton or Attica and I didn’t think about it,” he said. “But here, my dad grew up in Abbyville, so everyone knew my dad, my grandparents and my name. It was a feeling I’ll never forget.”