Every bull ride begins with two beings responding to discomfort in opposite ways.
One tries to throw it off. The other tries to endure it.
Inside the chute, there is barely enough room for bull and rider, let alone fear. The animal presses against the steel. A gloved hand grips a braided rope. The rider climbs onto 1,500 pounds of muscle knowing exactly what comes next. She nods her head, the gate swings open and, for eight seconds, she tries to stay with the very animal determined to throw her off.
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Samantha Sullivan rides to a win in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s Professional Bull Riding Teams League, at the Wilco Events Center on June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
That tension between resistance and resilience was on display June 27 at the Wilco Events Center in Taylor, where the Austin Gamblers and the Taylor Rodeo Association hosted “The Next Gambler,” a competition designed to identify the organization’s next rising bull rider. For the first time, the event also featured the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge, placing some of the nation’s top female bull riders in an arena that has historically belonged almost exclusively to men.
The competition is new. The fight to get there is not. For nearly a century, women have spent as much time holding onto the sport as they have holding onto the bulls.
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Every rider starts somewhere
Coach Jonnie Jonckowski rests on a cooler ahead of the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler at the Wilco Events Center on June 27, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Long before women found a place on a Professional Bull Riders stage, Jonnie Jonckowski was a young athlete looking for another dream.
Track and field had been her ambition. She hoped to compete in the 1976 Olympics until a hurdle accident left her with severe neck and back injuries, abruptly ending those ambitions.
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“I just floundered,” Jonckowski said. “I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do with my life.”
Then, over coffee and lunch with her mother in Montana, she noticed a rodeo poster hanging on the wall.
Within weeks, she had found a cowboy willing to teach her bareback riding and another who loaned her the equipment to climb aboard her first bull. She lasted four seconds.
“But the adrenaline that I felt off that bull ride,” she said, “was like coming out of the starting blocks. It was that explosive in my brain.”
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Jorden Halvorsen prepares her equipment ahead of the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler at the Wilco Events Center on June 27, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
More than three decades later, and nearly 1,300 miles away, Jorden Halvorsen found herself climbing aboard a bull for reasons that were surprisingly similar.
Raised in North Carolina, Halvorsen spent her childhood riding English horses and exercising difficult ponies to help pay for lessons. At 17, a bull rider jokingly suggested she ride one just to cross it off her bucket list.
“I fell off super fast,” she said. “And I was like, ‘I think I could stay on longer than that.'”
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She returned every Sunday for a year before entering her first competition.
“At the end of the day,” she said, “you’re competing against the bull.”
Earning a place
Jorden Halvorsen, left, Renata Nunes, and Samantha Sullivan chat as they get their equipment ready ahead of the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler at the Wilco Events Center on June 27, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
For Jonckowski, that first ride became a career.
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Twenty-three years later, she had become the first woman to compete against men in a national bull riding championship. She traveled the rodeo circuit alongside legends such as Ty Murray and To Hedeman.
The cowboys, she said, accepted her because she had earned her place.
“‘I don’t know if this is the best place for a woman,'” she recalled them saying. “‘But by God, she went up and down the road. She slept in her pickup. She did what we all did. She earned her right to be here.'”
Samantha Sullivan bows her head to pray as competition starts in The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event also marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding with the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
A bull waits to be ridden ahead of The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Emily Crowder puts her helmet on before getting into the chute as she competes in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Samantha Sullivan prepares her equipment ahead of the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Lilli Woods prepares her equipment ahead of the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Renata Nunes, second from left, watches a rider in The Next Gambler come off the bull in the chute while waiting to rider in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Jorden Halvorsen gets ready to ride in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Samantha Sullivan celebrates a winning ride at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Jorden Halvorsen gets ready to ride in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Jonnie Jonckowski, Hall of Fame cowgirl and bull rider, serves as honorary coach during the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Jorden Halvorsen tapes her hands as she prepares to ride in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Wyatt Sadler watches the mutton bustin’ event ahead of The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Renata Nunes sits with Coach Jonnie Jonckowski as they wait for the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Renata Nunes smiles as she walks out of a huddle with the other competitors ahead of the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Raven McCallum talks with other competitors as she prepares to ride in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Alejandro Hernandez rides in The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Jorden Halvorsen smiles as she chats with fellow riders in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Jorden Halvorsen rides in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler, an event hosted by the Taylor Rodeo Association and the Austin Gamblers, Austin’s PBR Teams League at the Wilco Events Center, June 27, 2026. The event marked the official partnership launch between Premier Women’s Rodeo and the Gamblers to create more opportunities for women in professional bull riding.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Even then, the footing was never secure.
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Women’s roughstock riding had largely disappeared after 1929, when rodeo organizers barred women from riding bulls and broncs following the death of pioneer Bonnie McCarroll. Separate organizations dedicated to women’s bull riding eventually emerged, but by the end of Jonckowski’s career many of those opportunities had disappeared once again.
“I worked really hard the last part of my career to keep it to the forefront,” she said. “We got women back riding at Cheyenne. We got Pendleton. But it just didn’t stick. We were kind of a novelty.”
Left: Jorden Halvorsen rides in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler at the Wilco Events Center on June 27, 2026. Top right: Renata Nunes sits with Coach Jonnie Jonckowski as they wait for the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge. Bottom right: Raven McCallum talks with other competitors as she prepares to ride in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge.
Sara Diggins/American-Statesman
By the time Halvorsen climbed onto her first bull in 2012, much of what Jonckowski had fought for had vanished.
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Halvorsen encountered reminders everywhere. She was denied bulls she had drawn, questioned about whether she was even allowed to compete and, at one rodeo, told she could only enter after organizers realized who she was.
“If a girl wants to enter,” she said, “I feel like she should.”
Instead of waiting for opportunities to return, Halvorsen decided to build them.
Making room for the next rider
Jorden Halvorsen smiles as she chats with fellow riders in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler at the Wilco Events Center on June 27, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Halvorsen founded Elite Lady Bull Riders in 2023, creating a competitive circuit where women could develop in a sport that often expected them to compete against far more experienced men.
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She doesn’t believe women have ever lacked the desire to ride. They have lacked a place to do it.
“Women carry a lot of responsibility,” Halvorsen said. “A lot of girls are more fearful of getting hurt because they’ve got families to take care of or they’re taking care of themselves. It’s a tough world out there.”
The event in Taylor felt like proof that the sport was beginning to catch up.
Emily Crowder, Coach Jonnie Jonckowski and Raven McCallum get ready to take sponsorship photos ahead of the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at the Wilco Events Center on June 27, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Jonckowski, now 72, returned as honorary coach of the Women’s Bull Riding Challenge alongside Halvorsen.
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“It just makes my heart so happy that the Gamblers brought me into this,” Jonckowski said. “I kind of feel like I’m living a second childhood.”
She believes the next generation has already arrived.
“I guarantee you there’s a hundred girls across the country riding bulls right now,” she said. “They just don’t know where to go.”
For Halvorsen, the challenge was never simply about winning.
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“I hope people realize that girls can be passionate about something that isn’t traditionally for them,” she said. “We’re just out there doing something we love.”
She knows what that love can demand.
Surviving the ride
Left: Jorden Halvorsen tapes her hands as she prepares to ride in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler. Right: Jorden Halvorsen gets ready to ride.
Sara Diggins/American-Statesman
In 2020, Halvorsen was stepped on by a bull during an event in Tennessee, suffering a catastrophic liver laceration.
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“I remember seeing them cut me open,” she said. “Then everything went bright. Everything was white. I didn’t feel anything. I just remember seeing a figure standing in the distance, and I remember saying, ‘I’m not ready.’ Then I woke up.”
She had flatlined twice during emergency surgery. Doctors placed her in an induced coma while preparing for what they feared would be a liver transplant.
Her liver regenerated on its own.
Three months later, she was back on a bull.
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Jonckowski recognizes that instinct. Her own path was stitched together through injuries that would have ended many others’ careers.
Jonnie Jonckowski, Hall of Fame cowgirl and bull rider, serves as honorary coach during the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler at the Wilco Events Center on June 27, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
A bull once stepped on her head, breaking every orbital bone in her face and leaving her temporarily paralyzed with spinal cord shock. Another nearly tore off her nose. She won a championship on crutches and competed through a life-threatening blood clot.
Asked whether she ever considered quitting, she laughed.
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“There were really only two times I thought, ‘What was I thinking?'” she said. “But injuries are commonplace. It’s just the sport.”
What it means to stay on the bull
Emily Crowder rides in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler at the Wilco Events Center on June 27, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
The two women belong to different generations of bull riding. Jonckowski spent decades proving women deserved a place in the arena. Halvorsen is working to ensure the next generation never has to ask for one.
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Looking back on four world championships, broken bones and a brush with death, Halvorsen said she is proudest of something less tangible.
“Just never giving up,” she said. “Never letting people’s opinions matter on what I truly find value in life.”
Addison Finck chats with competitors in the OptiWize Women’s Bull Riding Challenge at The Next Gambler at the Wilco Events Center on June 27, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Jonckowski has a simpler explanation.
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“You either have it or you don’t,” she said. “You can’t coach it. You can’t teach it.”
Maybe that is what every bull ride has always been about. One creature spends eight seconds trying to rid itself of discomfort. The other has already decided some things are worth enduring.