story by Lily Weinacht
Bull rider Terry Armstrong is the third generation of his family to ride roughstock, and he’s entering his third season competing in the NLBRA. “My papa rode bulls, and my dad rode steers and went into riding bareback broncs,” explains the 17 year old from Tuttle, Oklahoma. “The way I got into it was from watching the WNFR on TV when I was five. I saw the bull riding and thought that was something I’d like to do someday.”
He proceeded to ride calves and then graduated to mini bulls six months later, eventually working up to full size bulls and the senior boys division in Little Britches. Terry’s dad, Dusty Armstrong, knows COLBRA president, Mark Massey, who encouraged Terry and his sister Taylor to rodeo with them after the franchise started in 2014. “I like that it’s a family association. All the rodeo people are what drives me – members I can say are family who keep pushing me,” says Terry. “One of them is Dakota Lewis. I met him at one of my first Little Britches rodeos, and he helped me out. If I was really down after a ride because I didn’t do too good, he’d be there telling me there’s always the next rodeo.”
Terry is also inspired by PBR athletes Jess Lockwood and JB Mauney, and even attended a PBR in person several years ago, but his greatest love for rodeo’s most dangerous sport is the motion. “It’s being able to crawl down inside the chute and sit on twelve hundred pounds of pure muscle. When the gate cracks open, it’s one of the best feelings in the world. I remember a bull, Bar 33, of Chad Lambert’s stock that I rode. He stood perfect in the chute, but if you landed on the ground, he’d be on you doing a dance.” Terry rides at several practice pens in the area between rodeos, including F-F Rodeo Stock in Marlow, Oklahoma. “Whenever they call me with bulls to get on, I go down there. Sometimes they have green bulls that have never had a rider on them. I don’t mind those.”
Though Terry is the only one of his family now riding roughstock, his sister Taylor, 16, runs barrels and poles. She’s competed in Little Britches, qualifying for the 2016 NLBFR, while she and Terry have two older sisters, Jordan and Katrina, who have also rodeoed in the past. They come to cheer Terry on at several of his rodeos, along with his mom, Michelle.
If he’s not practicing and exercising, or hanging out with his dog, Buddy, Terry can be found finishing his junior year at Tuttle High School. His favorite class has been auto service mechanics. “We’ve been taking engines apart, and a big project of mine is replacing the transmission in my car,” says Terry. “I want to know mechanics to work on my own vehicles, and I’d like to become a lineman and work for OEC (Oklahoma Electric Cooperative) or PSO (Public Service Company of Oklahoma). My dad is a lineman, and he’s teaching me the basics like underground, transformers, and transformer fuses.”
Terry’s main goal over summer break is to compete in the NLBFR in Guthrie, Oklahoma. After watching Taylor compete there last year, he’s been even more motivated to earn a spot at the finals. “I want to graduate high school, and I’d like my bull riding to go to the PBR,” he finishes, “but if it doesn’t go that way, I still want to keep rodeoing.”