Starting with sheep, 26-
From Rogers, Ohio, Maurer rode in little britches rodeo events and eventually high school rodeo before jumping into SEBRA.
“My older brother Rob rode high school rodeo. I started going to rodeos with him, hanging out behind the chutes and kind of got hooked,” said Maurer.
He took a little break from the sport in high school to give football and wrestling a try but the rush of bull riding has kept him locked in the sport wanting to go as far with it as he can.
In 2004 he was first in Ohio's high school rodeo association and made the top 80 at the national high school finals that year. He was second in Ohio in 2003 and has won several buckles for different events and series. He was a 2008 NABA finalist and qualified in the top 40 for SEBRA's finals in 2009 and 2010. Maurer would like to eventually teach schools and own some bucking bulls but sees that sometime in the future. “I'd like to have a good enough name and reputation that kids would want to come to my school,” said Mauer.
Brett Maurer, Rogers , Ohio
The SEBRA Extreme Team consists of bull riders recognized for their contributions to the sport from postive attitude and character to ability in the arena. Extreme Team members represent the association at events and work closely with SEBRA helping producers and the association with promotions.
A playpen behind the bucking chutes was where Lain Hartzog can remember spending a lot of time at rodeos with his dad, Chris. Hartzog, who grew up in Greenville, Alabama, can remember being kept in the playpen while his dad rode bulls. But by the time he was five, Hartzog was on his first calf at a little britches rodeo with encouragement from his dad.
“I didn’t win by any means but it was a competition,” said Hartzog.
Chris rode bulls until Lain was seven or eight years old and time was split between regular events and little britches rodeos before the torch was passed to Lain. That’s when Chris and Lain’s mom, Susan Lambert, began hauling Lain down the road to junior rodeos.
In junior rodeo, Lain was responsible for paying his own entry fees but his parents made sure he got to the events.
“I couldn’t have done this without their help,” he said. But when he turned 17, Lain was already traveling more on his own and with other bull riders as traveling partners.
Since winning the Alabama Junior Rodeo championship in 2004, Lain has won the Southern States Bull Riding Association finals and the Mid South rodeo championships, as well as being a SEBRA finals qualifier in 2009.
Lain Hartzog, Tyler, Alabama
With seven bulls to haul and the ability to clown or announce, Hurt VA’s Daniel Lanier wants to be at a bull riding every weekend he can just to be a part of the action.
“I just want to work with some of the best. I love it,” said Lanier who was named June’s SEBRA/Wrangler Extreme Team member.
Lanier has been involved with bull riding since 1998 when his father Herbert and a family friend bought everything they needed to start a rodeo company. They leased bulls at first before starting their own breeding program that has raised up some great bucking stock including Just a Prospect that was seen at the 2008 SEBRA finals in Raleigh NC. At 15 years old, Lanier could be seen helping in the arena, running scores with his face painted as he began early steps toward becoming a barrel man.
By 2000, Lanier clowned his first show at a Future Farmers of America statewide event where he said it was a great feeling to be graduating high school and performing in front of people his age.
“Man, it was so much fun,” said Lanier, who has since added announcing and auctioneering to his resume.
From 2003 to 2005 Lanier spent his summers clowning across the border in Ontario where he honed his talent doing 45 shows in 23 cities within three months in 2005. As much as he loved his Ontario experience, Lanier has been seen at SEBRA events ever since, though he and his family have been hauling bulls to SEBRA events since they started.
“We’ve held a card from the beginning,” he said.
Daniel Lanier, Hurt, VA
Austin Gosnell is one of the youngest member of the SEBRA Extreme Team so far and has been riding since he was 11 years old.
“I wanted to do it since I was little but wasn't allowed,” said Gosnell, from Mt. Airy, Maryland. “Pretty much everything in the house became a bull.”
Cousins would come over and be rode like bulls, a hobby horse he had would have a rope put on it and he'd pretend to ride it like a bull.
He finally convinced his family to let him ride and he began going to a practice pen in Maryland.
“It was a big rush. I wouldn't hear anything. It was a huge blue. All I could really hear was my heart,” he said.
In his first year with the Central Pennsylvania Youth Rodeo Association, Gosnell took a second place finish.
And for starting his bull riding career so early, Gosnell has already taken his share of injuries including a collapsed lung and lacerated liver after getting stepped on at an even in Lynchburg, VA when he was just in the 8th Grade.
“I want to be a world champion bull rider when it's all said and done. I want to make a living at it,” he said.
Austin Gosnell, Mt. Airy, Maryland
