story by Lindsay Humphrey
A torn ACL and meniscus kept Logan Mullin from competing at the final KHSRA event of the fall season, but he won’t let it keep him out of the spring rodeos. “I was running the ball [in football] and someone tackled one leg. I got twisted and tore things up,” said the Clay Center High School senior. “It’s never a good time to get hurt, but if I had to pick a time this was it. Dog Miller [Kansas Orthopedic Center] did my surgery on October 5th and told me I could be competing in six months. My goal is to bull dog at the first spring rodeo, which will be right at six months after the injury.” Since Logan can’t do anything physical through the cold months of winter, he’s strategizing for his mental game.
“My plan is to keep my mental game sharp by staying positive and focusing on the good things.” Logan hopes taking it one day at a time will help him appreciate the smaller accomplishments that will ultimately lead him to the rodeo arena. “I’ll have to just be happy with being able to put a sock on by myself. I’m already itchin’ to get back and it’s just eatin’ me up. I’m really going to have to work hard at rehab and listen to the doctors.” Logan already had a strong year both in high school rodeo and beyond, but he intends to come back even better and stronger than before.
“I made it to CPRA finals this year, and even though I didn’t get to compete at them because of my injury it was still a big accomplishment.” As a sophomore, this Oakhill, Kansas, native took second in the bull dogging in the first round of high school nationals. This past summer he placed in the top ten in the second round riding a horse named Coop, owned by Jaylen Hash. Logan has also won the Champions Challenge in Omaha twice. He credits his bull dogging success to Chancey Larson and Tanner Brunner. “Tanner’s been to the NFR a few times and he’s really helped me out a lot. I go up to Manhattan and practice with him quite a bit. I haul with Chancey in the summer and he hazes for me. He’s been the biggest help I’d say.”
Of course Logan couldn’t do any of it without his support system at home of his parents, Dusty and Piper, and his siblings, Hunter, 21, and Addy, 20, from afar. “I kind of discovered bull dogging on my own because my parents and my siblings didn’t do a lot of rodeo when I was younger. When we were little my dad decided he wanted to try team roping and started going to jackpots and I would go with him.” Logan picked up team roping from his dad and began chute dogging in the KJHSRA. “I’ve always enjoyed watching bull dogging. I was in the seventh grade when I realized that I really wanted to do it.”
The transition from wrestling a steer from the ground to jumping off the back of a horse can be tough. “In junior high you can get away with being sloppy, but when you’re going mock five on a horse you don’t have much room for error. I still practice with steers on the ground sometimes to make sure all my fundamentals are right.” Not only does his Logan have plenty of mentors to guide him through the slumps of rodeo, he also has a great pack of friends to lean on. “I have really great friends in the KHSRA. We have a great group of people in general and a good senior class and that makes it all so much fun.” The tight-knit group that is the KHSRA always enjoys their time at nationals, but it was a difference experience in 2020. “Our team stayed at the fairground in Guthrie instead of the Lazy E for nationals. We had a lot more room to spread out that way. The venue was smaller this year, but we all enjoyed it.” As Logan looks to the future, he’s planning to rodeo in college but hasn’t made any definite plans of where that might be just yet.
