Blake Dunsmore grew up going to rodeos and watching his big brother, Matt, climb astride bulls with names like Bushwacker, Perfect Storm and Slingblade.
Whether at a state fair with thousands of dollars on the line or at a two-bit backwater, under the lights or on a sunny afternoon, the routine was always the same:
Matt, now 34 and living in Elk River, would climb into a chute, swing a leg over one of the big animals, rosin a bull rope and wrap it twice across the palm of his gloved right hand, cowbell swinging beneath the bull.
Then, his cowboy hat pushed low, Matt would nod for the gate to swing open.
At which time, anything could happen.
And did.
"The thrill of it appealed to me," said Blake, 22, of Forest Lake. "That and I wanted to be like my big brother. So when I was in sixth grade, I started riding bulls."
Sunday night, both brothers will be on the card in Hamel, on the fourth and final day of the annual Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) World's Championship Hamel Rodeo on the western edge of the Twin Cities.