FORT WORTH, Texas – Following his 0-for-4 showing at the 2025 PBR World Finals – Eliminations last weekend, Bob Mitchell planned on driving home from Fort Worth, Texas, to Steelville, Missouri.
He left on Sunday night and made it an hour and a half up the road to Marietta, Oklahoma, where he spent the night.
On Monday morning, he received a text from world No. 1 Dalton Kasel.
“Do you want to get on bulls on Tuesday?” he asked.
“I turned around and came back down and hung out with him and got on,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell joined the group at Kasel’s ranch and got on two practice bulls there, successfully riding both of them. But the benefits he got from his time there went much further than what he did on the back of a bull or two.
“Just kind of listening to Dalton’s mentality of being the aggressor about it, not just going in there and letting them have you – it gave me a little confidence going into today,” Mitchell said. “But then, I just had to realize I had to calm down and trust in your own ability. You’re here for a reason. It’s just actually getting yourself to believe in it is a different story.”
Getting to rub elbows with the man in the driver’s seat of the world title race did Mitchell good when he had the chance to keep his season alive at Ride For Redemption on Wednesday night. Mitchell went 2-for-2 to finish second in the one-night aggregate and advance to the second night of Ride For Redemption.
In Round 1, he rode Noslaw Extrasauce for 84 points before riding Stewey for 78.25 points in Round 2.
“I guess I should’ve (gone to Kasel’s house) last week,” Mitchell said with a laugh. “I’ve wanted to come down. He’s texted me a bunch to come down and get on, but I also live like nine and a half, ten hours from him. So it’s kind of hard.”
Even when he was closer to Kasel’s house, it was a hard thing to do.
“It was like 2 o’clock, middle of the afternoon, so it was – I don’t know how hot it was, but it felt like it was 130 degrees out there, because I’m used to Missouri, not Texas,” Mitchell said. “And that’s something I’ve learned, too: if you want to be good at something, you’ve got to do hard things. You’ve got to get out of your comfort zone. And to get out there, to get on those bulls and just make yourself do something hard, that’s also fun, but do something hard is going to benefit you in the long run by a lot. Instead of just staying in the hotel room and just sitting on the couch, doing nothing, compared to going and bettering yourself and your craft.”
It’s been a year of similar reflections for the 2022 Rookie of the Year. He intentionally took a step back from bull riding early in the season, competing only at the PBR St. Louis, presented by Michelob ULTRA, in December, in addition to the occasional Touring Pro Division event.
“This is the first break I’ve taken since I was like 11 years old,” Mitchell said. “And me and my brother covered my arena. I just needed to relax, chill out, and just calm down a little bit. Just kind of reset.”
Mitchell got back into the Unleash The Beast schedule in January, competing on the Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour when he got cut.
“(I was) going back to Velocities and stuff, and just having fun again, I feel like,” he said. “Just going back to the basics. But everybody makes it sound like, ‘Oh, he wasn’t good enough. He wasn’t on tour, blah blah blah.’ No, I didn’t want to go to the first half of the season. So they make it sound stupid, but no.”
He won the Velocity Tour’s PBR Oakland in late April and ultimately finished third in the season-ending Velocity standings to earn his way to the World Finals.
While his Eliminations didn’t go to plan, Ride For Redemption is off to a strong start. He’ll be back in action on Thursday night, which airs live exclusively on the Cowboy Channel at 9 p.m. ET.
“It’s just getting on bulls,” Mitchell said. “I read a deal not very long ago that’s like, ‘Pressure is man-made.’ Pressure is not a thing. It’s man-made. So if you don’t let pressure get to you, it won’t. So I don’t want to think about it. Right now, I ain’t got nothing going into it. I got no bones in it. So I’m just relaxing, having fun, going back to the basics, and just doing everything I can. Just pack ‘er in there and try to stay on.”
While Mitchell knows people may be talking about him not being good enough, he refuses to let the noise get to him.
“There’s a lot of silly things about that,” Mitchell said. “I just don’t like to think about it a whole lot. People are going to think and say what they want to say. I mean, you ain’t going to make everybody happy, but you’re never going to hear anybody talking shit on ya that’s doing better than you. I mean, I never have, anyway. So just stay in your own lane and keep the good Lord first and you’ll be alright.”
Photo courtesy of Bull Stock Media
