The buck starts here
At age 15, he’s competing nationally in a sport that is his life
Staff writer
When Rusty Ballinger mounts a bucking bronc today at the National High School Finals Rodeo in Rock Springs, Wyoming, he will not yet be 16.
But his ride will culminate years of practice that have seen the Florence native battle through injuries to the peak of youth rodeo.
With a mop of hair poking out from a beige cowboy hat, Ballinger spoke to the Record in the driveway of his grandparents’ ranch outside Florence last week.
His mother, Jessica Slater, and two younger siblings, Riley and William, stood alongside him as cicadas chirped in surrounding fields.
Saturday, he arrived in Wyoming to compete in the finals in bareback bronc riding.
He began bronc riding only a year ago but has shown his aptitude for the ferocious and often painful sport.
His mother participated in rodeo in college, and his step-father, James Zimmerman, rode bulls, though neither reached a professional level.
As a boy, Ballinger rode sheep on the family ranch. Three years ago, a friend began to ride bareback steers, and family friend Brayden Putter talked Ballinger into trying the sport.
Ballinger mounted a bucking steer for the first time and was immediately thrown off and knocked unconscious.
“He saw tweety birds,” Slater said.
Despite the injury, Ballinger was hooked.
He rode bareback steers through junior high, competing in Kansas Junior High Rodeo Association competition.
At a 2024 national event in Iowa, he placed 18th in a field of 49 in bareback riding.
After starting ninth grade, he switched from steers to horses, or “broncs.”
“When you’re in junior high, they won’t let you get on any horses because it’s too dangerous,” he said. “But as soon as I got to high school, I was like, ‘I’m going to take the risk.’”
The adrenaline rush, he said, is his favorite part of the sport.
Ballinger placed fourth in Kansas High School Rodeo Association’s state competition this year, earning his second trip to nationals.
Because he does not own horses or steers, Ballinger practices on a spur board in his family’s garage. The device simulates bareback riding.
“When I slide up on my rigging, I act like I’m the biggest, baddest mothertrucker out there,” he said.
Occasionally, he makes a three-hour drive to Oklahoma to practice on live horses.
“Twenty dollars to get on as many as I want,” he said.
While steer-riding is mainly a youth sport, bronc-riding is done professionally, and is considered more difficult. (Bull-riding is typically considered harder than both.)
“There’s more power,” Ballinger said. “On a steer, really all you have to do is just kind of hold on. On a horse, you’re prying with your arm, prying off your hip bone, moving your feet. You’re keeping your chest out, your chin tucked, your elbow tucked down.”
Competitors attempt to stay on their bucking steed for eight seconds. If they succeed, they receive a score based on how well they and their animal perform.
Riders must “hit their mark” during the ride, meaning their boots must be in contact with the horse’s neck before completion of the first jump.
This is one of Ballinger’s weaknesses as a rider, he said. His mother frequently shouts at him from the stands to keep his boots in position.
Since switching to bronc-riding, Ballinger has made the rodeo circuit his life.
“Every weekend I find somewhere to go,” he said, “whether it’s here, Oklahoma, Nebraska, or Missouri.”
Determination is one of his strengths. Last July, while still new to broncs, Ballinger broke his humerus after flying off a horse.
Within a few hours of having a metal plate implanted in his arm, he was ready to get back in the metaphorical saddle.
“The day that we were leaving the hospital, he’s like, ‘Mom, let’s go buck horses,’” Slater said. “I’m like, ‘No, you’re on pain meds.’”
A day later, he was back practicing.
Riding is an emotional activity for both human and animal. Perhaps the largest variable in bronc-riding is the horse’s mood.
“I’ve got quite a bit of control sometimes,” Ballinger said. “Then there’s sometimes where I get a crappy horse, and I don’t have much control.”
Ballinger attempts to understand his horse’s personality before competing.
“I bug people a lot about what the horse I have does,” he said. “I don’t want them to be really angry to where they flip over, and I don’t want them too relaxed, where they just slowly come out. I like them a little bit fast and loose.”
Another pre-ride routine involves singing along to “white girl music” before a ride. “Fergalicious,” the 2006 dance and R&B hit, is a current favorite.
Ballinger joined contestants around the world in Wyoming. Riders from Mexico, Guatemala, New Zealand, and Australia all sought the $70,000 first-place prize.
All told, there was $300,000 in belt buckles and prize money at the event.
Ballinger wants to become a pro rider. He is deciding whether to attend a college with a rodeo program. A few —Fort Scott Community College, Oklahoma Panhandle State University, and Dodge City Community College — are already scouting him. Or he may try to jump straight onto the pro circuit after high school.
When asked why there wasn’t more of a rodeo scene in Marion County, Ballinger said he thought the area was too urban.
“I feel like most of the people in Marion are people that have come from Wichita or stuff like that and really don’t know what it is,” he said.
He also said he thought rodeo had become less popular over the last few decades.
Nonetheless, the young Florentine is helping keep the sport alive in Marion County with his dedication and guile.
Fittingly, his next event will be within county limits.
Ballinger will ride bareback July 23 at the Marion County Fair in Hillsboro.