Break free

The first month of the summer break has been anything but a vacation for Cord McCoy.

"The only thing about the break is the telecast," he joked.

McCoy has been competing at various Touring Pro Division events. He was in North Dakota two weeks ago and then competed in Oklahoma last weekend. In addition to riding bulls, the McCoy family has had some of the futurity bulls competing the past two weeks at ABBI events Oklahoma.

As a rider, he's interested in seeing the future bulls he'll be competing against (in about 18 months to two years from now), while as a contractor, he's keeping a close eye on the market.

However, as a rider, he said, "I think you can go ahead and get a scouting report on those two-year-olds."

In the meantime, he pointed out the top-ranked bulls aren't taking a break either.

"It's not a break. It's not telecast, but there's no break there."

Contractors like H.D. Page, Chad Berger and two-time reigning Stock Contractor of the Year Jeff Robinson, along with the others, are all hauling their best bulls to various events, especially during the next three weeks.

Last Saturday, D&H Cattle Company held their annual bull sale, and then hosted a TPD event in Ardmore, Okla., that featured an ABBI Classic competition.

"You're going to ride or try to ride somebody's best 4-year-old," McCoy said, "so it's not a break. It's not telecast, but there's no break there."

McCoy's goal in January was to qualify for the World Finals in October.

Unfortunately, he got cut from the Built Ford Tough Series after the 16th of 19 events. McCoy is currently ranked 29th in the world standings and is 53rd in the qualifier standings. The Top 35 will qualify for the Finals.

"I guess it's a good thing and a bad thing," he explained. "It's bad to get cut, but if you're going to get cut, it's good to have two-and-a-half/three months to make up ground you've lost."

Right now, he plans to enter as many TPD events as he can travel to. This weekend, he'll be in Sidney, Mont.

Over the long Fourth of July stretch, he'll be in Pendleton, Ore., Tidioute, Penn., and a few other events. He said the money is out there to win, but like everyone else, he'll have to invest his money and time in staying on the road.

The key, he added, is mapping out his schedule and sticking to the plan.

McCoy explained that every Monday morning, he's entering events, buying plane tickets, booking hotel rooms or calling to check in with other bull riders "to make it a good economic business." Each rider is like a small business and the money coming in and going out varies from one day to the next.

Part of the plan is to mitigate expenses.

When asked what he'll have to accomplish to achieve his goal, McCoy simply said, "Win. That's it."

Whether he's competing at a BFTS event or a TPD event, McCoy said bull riding is simple: stay on and win. He added that if he do those two things, "it's easy to make your back up to the top.

Follow Keith Ryan Cartwright on Twitter @PBR_KRC.