RONAN — Payton Fitzpatrick got an early run in the 2010 Miniature Bull Riding Association Finals last Saturday in Ronan and made the most of it. The 15-year old was able to score 69 points on the bull Hotwire and had enough points in the MBRA standings to qualify for the Northwest Regionals.

“I didn’t get bucked off and that’s all I can ask for,” Fitzpatrick, of Polson, said.

The regionals will be held in Helena in November and were the goal for Fitzpatrick and 20 other young cowboys from the state-wide association who came to compete. Due to his age, this was the last year Fitzpatrick could qualify for this event, so there was a little pressure.

“You just want to ride that bull and get it,” he said.

Fitzpatrick has been riding for three years but he said that the O’Herns, who provided the bulls through the Rocky Mountain Mini Buckers company in St. Ignatius, keep bringing tougher and tougher miniature bulls.

“It keeps getting a little harder every year,” he said. “[Ty O’Herns] bulls get better and better.”

Watching Fitzpatick ride the bull on Saturday, you could see he used his experience and skill to hang on.

“When you lift [on the rope] then it’s like you’re a part of the ball,” he said. “When you don’t then you bounce off.”

Fitzpatrick said it was nerve-racking the first time he every rode a miniature bull. He always wanted to do it, but it did take a lot of guts to get in the chute with the animals that he could hear rattling their horns around in the pens.

“It was one of those moments where you just had to cowboy up,” he said.

Miniature bulls are specifically bred smaller and are a better introduction to bull riding than slimmer young steers.

“It kind of helps get the kids prepared,” Debbie Lund, event organizer for the MBRA said. “Bulls are thicker and they buck more like the bigger animals.”

Once the expenses from the rodeo are covered, the left over money will go to the kids for their trip to regionals. Along with the bullriding they also had several youth events like goat tail tying, breakaway roping, barrel racing and sheep riding.

“It was kind of a fun thing,” Lund said. “We had a lot of kids that had never won prizes before.”

The Association gave out a couple thousand dollars worth of prizes to the kids during the weekend.

“Instead of just doing bull riding, we wanted to do something for the younger kids,” Lund said. “There’s not always a lot of things like this for them to do.”

Asking some of the young rodeo cowboys and cowgirls, they seemed to appreciate the chance to participate in the sport.

“It lets me be me,” 15-year old Keenan Hall, of Ronan, said. “It lets me be competitive with something I love, which is horses.”

Hall had the tough task of tying down squirrely goats during the event.

“It just depends on the goat,” she said.

Thirteen-year-old Haley O’Hern, of St. Ignatius competed in the breakaway roping, something she has been practicing twice a week on calves at home.

“It’s hard,” she said. “You’ve got to learn how to ride and swing your rope.”

Lund said that there are no other states with miniature bull riding regionals. Competitors from Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Montana will compete in Helena.