You might need some popcorn before you sit down to read this blog

I would say Zack Brown is a cowboy, but he'll tell you that he's not a cowboy. He's a surfer, but he's a tough, scrappy little sum-buck, and he'll try his [guts out] every time he nods his head.

Obviously that's what has gotten him to where he's at right now--he tries and he does not know the word quit. He's a world-class, extremely nice guy.

He might not have gotten scored quite as high as everyone else, but that was probably the toughest bull ride in the short round. He wouldn't let go.

I was watching it, and when they called for a review of his ride to see if he made it, I was thinking, from a bull rider's perspective, if that's 7.9 you give it to somebody who tried that hard because there was nothing else he could do. He could not have stayed on that bull any longer.

Whether or not they gave him the score, he had made the toughest bull ride in the short go, and I'm going to go ahead and say the grittiest bull ride of the whole weekend. It didn't matter to me, I was still going to give him credit for riding the bull one way or another.

In any case, I was glad I got to sit on the shark cage. I got to sit out there in Sacramento, and both times I've been out there now there have been five or six more guys to go and the very next guy to ride took me off.

I sucks that I didn't get to stay there very long, but it's a good thing. I'm extremely blessed to get up there at all.

Whenever you're sitting up there and you're fixing to watch the next five or six guys ride, it's a little nerve-wracking, but you don't want to show it because you don't want to admit to yourself you can be beat--you want to win.

Those are your friends riding and you want them to do good, but then again, the more of them that fall off, the more money you're going to win, so it's a mixed feeling that you get when you're sitting up there.

It's weird (that's for sure).

It's the same thing that it's always been: when you're in the lead and you're sitting back there watching everybody else ride, don't get me wrong, you really do want everyone to fall off.

You don't want anybody to get hurt, and you want it to all go smoothly, but that's why everybody that's there is in the Top 45 in the world: they have what it takes to win, and want everybody else to do worse than you.

It's a lot easier to sit up there and have faith that you're going to win when it's not a three-day event where those guys get to pick their bull in the short round. Obviously those Top 5 guys get a bull they feel like they can ride, so they're going to have more confidence in themselves than, say, the 10th through the 15th guy does.

You kind of expect that at least one or two guys are going to stay on.

To tell you the honest truth, I heard a bunch of people say that White Magic is their favorite bull, and every one of them who said that also said they want to see someone ride him.

Whenever you're standing there and you know you have to make up some ground, you don't really know what you're thinking, to tell you the truth. I probably would have stepped up and called for that bull.

The main reason I would have called for that bull is that I was talking with Justin McBride the other day, and he said that you want to be the best guy who rides the best bulls. He said when you get a chance to pick the best bull, do it.

That's how you get your name out there, and that's how you become a champion.

You can't be the best without beating the best, and the only way to do that is to ride against them. He hasn't been ridden this year and I don't know what I would have been thinking whenever I was putting my rope around him and called for him.

But I'm really glad to see that the bull got rode, and I figured Mike would ride him.

I wasn't too concerned after Mike picked him, because Holy Moly has been a great bull for a long time. I've seen plenty of my buddies get on him and I've always want to get on him in a long round or a short round.

You know you're going to be in the 90's whenever you ride him.

I remember exactly what Justin (McKee) said when I picked him: "Does it make you feel better that Mike Lee stepped up and picked White Magic? Now you don't have to worry about him." When he said I that thought, "Well, what do you think I am--some little chump?"

It doesn't matter. I'm sitting 12th now and I have 11 places to make up before I'm sitting where I want to be. The only way to get there is to pick the best bull and the best bull that was left, in my opinion, was Holy Moly. So that's what I picked.

I don't think they've made a bull that can't be beat. I really don't think they have, and I don't ever think they will.

Many people have told me that if the best bull has his best day and if the rider has his best day that the bull is always going to win. That's crap, because I'll tell you, there's nothing stronger than man's will.

Whenever you make up your mind to do something it's going to get done.

He might buck off 100 guys, but that 101st guy has just as good a chance as anybody in the world has on him. And then a lot of time when they ride those really good bulls you'll hear those guys say, "Well, he had an off day. He wasn't the same bull."

That's a bunch of crap, too.

There might be some guys who want them to have an off trip so they can stay on them, but what's the use in that? Anybody can ride him on his off day. You want to ride him when he's great, when he's got all the try and determination to get you off. That way there are no excuses: you beat the best when he was on top of his game.

In any case, man, it was snowing its butt off this weekend.

I went to a bull riding when I was 16 or 17 years old in Joplin, Missouri, and when I was heading up there it was about 50 degrees. That night when I went inside for the bull riding it was probably about 30, and then when I came out it was in the teens and there was about six inches of snow.

But, this was weird. I've never seen the weather like it was this weekend, in April. I've never put my rope on my bull inside a coliseum and had an inch of snow on my bull--and I was doing it.

They would run our bulls in there and it couldn't hold but 10 of them in the coliseum at one time, and that was in the bucking chutes and everything, so whenever it was your turn, the snow was just melting of its back and you were fixing to get soaked.

It kind of made you have to try a lot harder, because your rope got slick and you couldn't hold on as tight. You're rope was coming out of your hand the whole time you were riding. It was a lot harder.

You feel like you're not as loose, and if you're sore at all, it really brings out that soreness, whether it's in your arm, legs or your back or whatever; especially whenever you hit the ground.

I kind of have always liked it when it's a little bit different.

Whether it's freezing cold or pouring down rain or whatever, I kind of like that, because those other guys will start making excuses, and as soon as they do that's the time to go beat 'em. I've ridden in the rain a hundred times and every time I hear them complain I'm just thinking to myself, "That's good. I'm glad you don't like it because that's just more money that I can win today."

But, yeah, it was a pretty good weekend. I let one bull get out from under me and it cost me quite a bit of money. I won some money, got some points and moved up in the qualifying for the World Finals and moved up in the point standings.