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The bull riding legend who nearly got himself killed -- and lived to tell about it

J.B. Mauney conquered the toughest bulls in the world. As he prepares to enter the Bull Riding Hall of Fame, he reflects on the injury that made him hang it up.

Ryan Osborne

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Published: 5:07 PM CDT May 7, 2024
Updated: 3:33 PM CDT May 11, 2024

The richest bull rider who ever lived still welds his own fence.

"The s--- you gotta do when you retire..." J.B. Mauney says on a recent Wednesday, grinning in a flame-resistant Wrangler shirt.

Mauney, 37, is standing in a pasture at the XV Ranch, the sprawling property he owns near Stephenville, about 90 minutes southwest of Fort Worth. A two-time world champion, Mauney bought the ranch back when he was still riding bulls. It wasn't a backup plan because Mauney definitely never had one. He just viewed it as his slice of Texas, and it's where he is now: fixing fences, wrangling wayward cattle, loading bucking bulls into chutes and coaching younger riders on the finer points of surviving the most dangerous sport on earth.

Mauney takes off his welder's helmet and replaces it with a trucker cap from a Stephenville pipe supply company. 

He begins telling the story of how his career ended.

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