From the Nightlife Guide —

Garrett Berry gets nervous as he sits on a bull before a ride.

He looks at the clock. He looks at his calloused hands. He anxiously walks around the bull and looks into its eyes, begs for mercy and stretches before the ride begins.

Finally, it’s show time and Berry thinks about little else except the ride.

Ever since he was a small child, he knew he belonged in the arena. Bull riding captivated him before he even attended kindergarten.

“I have pictures of me when I was a little kid,” Berry said. “My dad would get on his hands and knees and I’d get on him when I was 2 or 3 years old and pretend he was a bull and I’d pretend to ride him.”

Riding is Berry’s sport. Along with rodeos, he participates in live bull riding at Club Rodeo, 10001 E. Kellogg Drive, from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.  

“Club Rodeo is really fun,” Berry said. “It’s a lot different than a normal rodeo. There’s a lot more people up in your face, there’s people booing you if you did bad. It’s a good place to earn some extra money and to practice.”

Every weekend bull riders compete for $1,500 in the largest nightclub in Kansas, and spectators enjoy discounted drinks, dancing and the opportunity to ride a mechanical bull.

Berry grew up on a ranch near Topeka. His father’s interest in bull riding intrigued him. However, his father rode bareback horses. Berry always preferred bulls.  

“I always liked the bulls more than the horses,” Berry said. “First time I got on a horse he shot me about 10 feet up in the air and I landed on my neck … So yeah, even though they’re more dangerous, I prefer the bulls.”

All his life, Berry has been active. In high school he played baseball and although he doesn’t play anymore, he coaches at Wichita East High School. He often tells the players on his team what riding bulls is like.

“When I was playing baseball — I played at a 6A school in high school — I hit a homerun at a state tournament here in Wichita for the championship game,” he said. “It put us in the lead by a point, and I tell people that climbing on a bull is 100 times more exciting than that. There’s nothing like it.”

Most people don’t understand bull riding other than the need to stay on top of a bucking bull for as long as possible — the goal being eight seconds.

Berry said that being a bull rider requires much more than the notoriously famed eight seconds.

“It’s not just about holding on,” he said. “It’s all about moving with the bull. It’s about balance. It’s about making moves. When he moves, you move. He’s kind of like your dancing partner.”