For Gaylon and Joey Childers, having fun is serious business. You know a breeder is enjoying what he does when he states, “I haven’t had this much fun since I put a banana down my pants and turned a monkey loose!”

Located in Canyon, Texas on 800 acres is the Blessed Buckers Ranch, owned and operated by Gaylon and his wife of 33 years, Joey.

Although they now have 137 head of bucking bull livestock, the Childers originally had horses. They became involved in the rodeo industry when their daughter, Melissa, started competing in barrel racing at the age of four. Melissa stopped competing after high school, but their love of rodeo was firmly established. Gaylon is the first to tell you, “Rodeo has always been my favorite sport!”

The family became huge PBR fans and after watching the events on television they decided to attend their first live event just two years ago. They quickly became interested in the bucking bull side of the business.

Remembers Gaylon, “I met some real nice people in the bull industry and felt like it was something I wanted to get involved with. I’ve always done things in a big way and believed this was the right opportunity.”

Gaylon knew he wanted to do things right, so he looked to the experts for direction. He and Joey bought the best facilities, familiarized themselves with the ABBI and genetics and then started looking for the very best animals and bloodlines they could buy. The Childers also became lifteime ABBI members.

They partnered with Jerry Nelson of Frontier Rodeo on their first purchase, a double-bred Houdini son, 75 Simon. Simon held his own at his first Classic event in Oklahoma City where he tied two other bulls, Jacobs Pe and Stiffler, and all scored 85.25 putting them in 20th position. In his next event he scored an 87 and shared the 15th position with Klassic Rewind and Bigger Man.

The excitement of watching Simon compete led the Childers to start building their own breeding program. In keeping with Gaylon’s proven concept of always buying the best, they concentrated on females and started buying heifers from the top bloodlines.

“We have a half-sister to Bones, out of a Bone Collector Daughter, and we have a Reindeer Dippin’ daughter,” Joey listed. “We also have a daughter out of White Magic, and there are only two registered offspring out there to start. We’re also really excited about our Big Bucks daughter, Where’s My Momma?”

Before every sale, Gaylon and Joey go through the catalog together, pick what they want and determine a top price. Joey, who is normally soft-spoken and shy, changes personality when facing down the auctioneers. Joey laughs, “Well, we’re looking for something pretty special, something unique and if I have the chance to buy it, I will!”

Joey and Gaylon both immersed themselves in the genetics side of the game and have strong opinions about the type of bloodlines they want to produce. Asked what the perfect genetic makeup would be, Gaylon stated, “In my opinion, the best bulls haven’t been bred yet.”

The idea that you can always improve has driven Gaylon. He is an innovator at heart and is always looking to make things better. Now he has now turned that trait to the bucking bull industry. After participating in a number of events where he paid specific attention to the flanking of the bulls, Gaylon started hearing about problems contractors had flanking. Many complained about their bulls not being flanked properly when someone else hauled or flanked them, and therefore not bucking properly.

Gaylon fell back on his familiar motto: “I don’t like to have problems, I like to have solutions.” He got busy producing a viable alternative to the common flank strap. The result is Pull Pro, a flank strap with a spring-loaded monitoring system. The Pull Pro is not yet approved for official ABBI event use.

“When I started, I had seven or nine different prototypes, but I knew what I wanted to accomplish with it, so I just kept working at it, ” recalled Gaylon. He spent some time talking with some of the best flankmen in the business to get their input on the design. Gaylon was determined to make his product durable and simple. He was determined to take today’s technology and apply it in a way that could help the industry.