If you are born with the name Billy-Bob, you better plan on racing cars or riding bulls. For nine-year-old Sierra View Elementary fourth grader Billy-Bob Chapin, it’s the latter that caught his eye.
“Billy-Bob started riding sheep at age three with the Northern California Junior Bull Riders Association,” his mother Jennifer Chapin said. “He rode for part of his four-year-old year and then got scared. About four months after he turned five Billy-Bob said ‘How come I’m not riding sheep anymore? Remember I said I wouldn’t be scared when I turned five’.”
“He’s been riding ever since.”
Billy-Bob said he plans to ride bulls in high school rodeo when he is old enough. Until then, he will stick to a calf-riding career that has already garnered him national attention. He moved on to calf riding after completing his years with the sheep.
He was the Western Regional Bull Riding Association runner-up champion during the summer season, which qualified him to the Youth Bull Riding World Finals in Abilene, Texas in early August.
It’s at this event where Billy-Bob landed one of the best rides of his career to place 23rd among 58 of the best young calf riders in the world. Competitors from Mexico, Canada and across the United States were all present.
With calf riding out of season, Billy-Bob stays busy with two practices a week in Escalon, and still rides the Chapin calf in Oakdale at least once a week. He rides with the NorCal Junior Rodeo as well.