Members of the College of Animal Sciences saddled up for a new tradition Friday night that bids farewell to foreign graduate students with cowboy boots and bucking bulls.
Mateo Innochenti, an animal sciences graduate student from Italy, left for home this morning after studying for five months at the UA.
Innochenti took part in a cultural goodbye Friday night as he hopped on the back of a bull for the first time ever and fought to stay off the ground for at least eight seconds.
Lance Baumgard, an associate professor of animal sciences, and Rob Rhoads, a physiology research associate, joined Innochenti by riding bulls of their own to show support for the foreign graduate student and the bull riding tradition.
The tradition, however, is just getting started, said Mark Morales, an animal sciences research specialist.
The first foreign graduate student to take part in the tradition was Ming-Chi Lai, an animal sciences graduate student from Taiwan, who rode a bull in June and inspired Morales to continue the festivity.
"After he passed his exam we were talking about things he would like to do before leaving the U.S., and he said he hadn't ridden a horse yet," Morales said. "Somehow the subject came up about riding a bull."
Morales said when Lai agreed to ride a bull, he took care of the rest and made arrangements with the Western Skies Rodeo at the Lazy K Bar and Guest Ranch in Marana.
"Since then, we decided we were going to try and make that a foreign graduate student tradition," Morales said. "It gives them a little bit of the Western history, something new they have never tried."
Innochenti was at the rodeo when Lai took his first ride on a bucking bull.
"I told Mateo he was next," Morales said.
But he, unlike his Taiwanese friend, was not the only UA face to grab the ropes.
Baumgard and Rhoads both said although they did not have to ride, they wanted to support Innochenti and figured if the foreign students could do it, they should too.
Baumgard, who said he was not nervous before his ride, was the first of the three men to hit the dirt. He asked, "Did I stay on for more than a second?" after scrambling to his knees and running out of the way of the thrashing bull.
"These are the types of things everyone needs to do," Baumgard said, wincing at the pain in his wrist. "That's part of the thrill, the potential for getting hurt."
Rhoads upped the ante and stayed on his bull for 4.38 seconds, walking away with ripped jeans and a bruise after the bull's hoof landed on his upper-right thigh.
"I hit the ground and he got me good," Rhoads said, pointing to a patch of bruised skin.
Before the gates opened, Rhoads said he was completely oblivious to anything around him, including the instructions that were being given to him by the organizer.
"You're just trying to focus on your last moments on Earth," he joked.
Innochenti waited for almost an hour and a half before it was his turn to ride, and Maverick was one of the biggest bulls the rodeo had to offer.
"That bull is huge," Innochenti said before saddling up. "He will eat me."
In the midst of the crack of the whip and the clank of the cattle bell, Innochenti was jerked around the rodeo for two seconds before being thrown to the ground.
"I didn't even see the gate opening," he said.
Everyone has dreamed at least once to be a cowboy, Innochenti said, and though he will miss his friends and his experiences in the U.S., bull riding will be one of his fondest memories.
"I really like the American cowboy," he said.