The North West Star caught up with some of their best behind the chutes at Buchanan Park on Saturday night.

After trying his hand at bullriding, 21-year-old Tyler Chong decided bronc riding would be his mainstay. 

“My family all rodeo so I started bullriding and I was no good at that, then one day I was at my mates practice pen and he told me to jump on a horse,” Chong said. 

“I just kept riding and I am here today getting ready to ride some broncs in Mount Isa. 

“I recon bronc riding is a bit easier because you don’t have to go in circles flat stack and get dizzy – on a bronc you just have to hang on.”

The Chong family are well known in rodeo circles in the north west. 

“My brother Darryl Chong, he is a bull fighter and my other brothers are both bronc riders and my old man used to do a bit of bronc riding back in the day – it is in the family,” Tyler Chong said. 

“When I’m riding against my brothers and I want to put on a better show than they do and try to be a bit competitive but we like watching each other and help each other out and win a bit of money.”

Despite two years of competition under his belt Chong still gets nervous before a ride. 

“If you do not get nervous you must be a little crazy basically. I love it, it is a real adrenaline rush out there.”

Chong is right to be nervous. 

Another Cloncurry cowboy, Jack Keats was trampled by a bull a few months ago. 

He returned to the rodeo ring on Saturday night, after his recovery sidelined him from the action. 

“I didn't ride at Mount Isa rodeo – I was injured because a bull jumped on my back at Cloncurry rodeo a couple months back,” Keats said. 

“I ended up with internal bleeding.”

After six-years of bullriding, Keats has racked up a few hospital visits. 

“We went to America and I broke my arm on the first bull of the high school finals,” he said.  

I have also fractured my L4 vertebrae and broken a heap of ribs.

“If you have to have a break it makes you a lot keener when you come back,” Keats said. 

It is a similar story for 19-year-old Donovan Rutherfurd, from Malbonvale Station in the Cloncurry Shire.

“In April this year I broke my jaw in about four places and ended up with some plates and screws and that in my mouth. 

“I stepped off a bull and I didn’t land very good and he stood on my face. It was a pretty big bull, maybe 800 kilos.”