A southern Alberta stock contractor is stepping away after two and a half decades of raising bucking bulls that have participated in some of the top bull riding events in North America.
Owner of Two Bit Bucking Bulls, Josh Berezay, says the decision to retire from stock contracting comes from his belief that if you are not working every day to be at the top level, then it is time to give that spot to someone who is.
“I’m not getting any younger – my wife and I would like to do some travelling,” Berezay says. “I feel that I’m at a point where I want to step back and I don’t want to show up with a product that isn’t what I want it to be.”
He says throughout the years, those who are part of the PBR have become family and he has watched many of the current riders grow up from little boys who were riding sheep, to the bull riders they are today. He has even seen some retire from the sport, and have kids who are now riding.
“That’s the part that we’ll miss, is those friendships – [that’s] not to say that we won’t show up and get a visit with people and participate on a different level, but I truly believe that if you want to be a stock contractor at this level, it takes that commitment.”
He says what makes a bull a successful competitor is “similar to what any great athlete has – that speed and intensity and that’s what I look for”. He says you can’t teach a bull how to kick or how to have those personality traits, as they either have it or they don’t. He adds it can be quite a process to get bulls that can compete at the top level, because you may have 25 cows in the herd, with only a handful that are top competitors.
“Our roles are to take care of the animals and they’re always first. They eat before we do every day [and] that’s just the way that we’ve taught our kids – that those animals are our income for us. They’re our job and not everybody is built to get up at five o’clock in the morning and feed them. It doesn’t matter whether it’s 40 below or 40 above, they need to be taken care of.”
Throughout his years, one of the Two Bit Bulls he says that sticks out as having it all is Happy Camper, who was the first-ever bull to win the PBR Canada Bull of the Year honours in 2018 and 2021.
“He had longevity, he had a career. From the time he was three years old, he made it to the PBR World Finals. He went there five times total,” Berezay says. “Every time he showed up he’d come to play, he didn’t have a day off. If these guys drew that bull in the championship round, they had a fistfight coming and he’d bring the fight.”
Other bulls of the outfits who have been recognized as PBR Canada’s Bull of the Year include Bucking Fantastic in 2012 and Catch My Drift in 2020.
