Bobby Joe Hill brought a pen of fresh M-branded Corriente steers to Chad Masters’ indoor arena in Lipan, Texas, March 7 to get their first runs on them before The American Rodeo Saturday, March 9, 2024, in the massive setup of Arlington’s Globe Life Stadium.

Fresh cattle at The American Rodeo in 2024 were not in Hill’s plans until Monday, March 4, when he tried to sort through his set.

“I wanted to bring the San Antone steers,” Hill, who is also the NFR cattle contractor, said. “We sort a few off, but we didn’t like them after they had the World Series in Stephenville, and it was bigger than we thought. So they hadaa few extra runs than what we thought. After we roped through probably 25 of them, I didn’t like what I saw. So we’re going to Plan B, and that’s fresh ones, fresh Mexicans.”

Hill, of Hill Rodeo Cattle, has to bring 10 steers for the round of 10, with three extras. Those 10 will all have good horns—’No. 1 bull dogging steers,’ as Hill puts it. For the Round of 4, Hill has to provide a set of four steers, with two extras. Those four will be Charolais, all stronger with bigger horns, to spice things up for the potential million-dollar round. He’ll bring two extras for that round, too, with two steers held back in case of a tie-breaker.

In the run through Thursday night, the steers were walking fresh, and they weren’t leaving the chute as most of the contestants would like. The guys decided they’d run them through a few more times Friday morning to try to get them to start.

“They’re not NFR strong,” Hill said. “They’ve been standing around out on pasture, and they probably weigh 450.”

—TRJ—