Beau Hill of West Glacier began riding bulls at 14, "practicing on bull after bull after bull" and showing up every week for the rodeo in East Glacier. Now he's among the top 40 riders in the world, competing with athletes from North and South America for more than $3.2 million in prize money at the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) World Finals in Las Vegas last weekend and next.

In the first three rounds of competition last weekend, Hill failed to stay the full eight seconds on two bulls he rode earlier this year, but earned 86.50 points for staying on Hee Bee Gee Bee, a brute that bucked him in their previous encounter.

"This is a humbling sport," Hill said from his hotel room at Mandalay Bay. "That's why you have to take one bull at a time, keep your head up, and get to the short round."

The top 15 riders compete in the final round next Sunday.

While waiting for the fourth of sixth rounds on Thursday, Hill signed autographs, posed for a PBR calendar, and watched his two older children play in the wave pool, 'something they couldn't do in Montana this time of year," he said.

Hill is a 1997 graduate of Columbia Falls High School. He and his wife, Keri, have three children — Lakia, 7; Jace, 4; and Jory, 10 months. Between April and October each year, he doesn't see much of them.

"I'm gone four days a week during the season," Hill said. And then there's the time he spends in daily exercises — sit-ups, push-ups, hiking, running — to keep up with "the rankest bulls in the world."

Hill played every team sport available in high school — football, baseball and basketball — but chose bull-riding, because "it thrilled me," he said. "And it still does."