Thieman Bucking Bulls consists of Rodney, Kristi & Jocey Thieman.
We live in a small community in Northern California, where we have resided since 2001. Rod rode bulls
since he was a young teenager sharing his interest with many good friends in Southeastern Idaho. He moved to Salinas,
California to attend Hartnell College and rodeo. He was a member of the PRCA for nine years, competing mainly in
the Wilderness and Sierra Circuits. I met Rod in 1988 in Idaho, we married and have lived in California
since 1989.
We started bucking bulls back in 1994 in the Bakersfield
area at GG Arena. We will always appreciate what Patti Wykuff and the late great Gilbert Gomez did for
us. Starting at the practice pens, junior rodeos and local open bullridings, bulls were tried and made by simply getting
the trips on them. We consigned the ones we thought would make it in the higher ranks to the NFR sale each year.
What prospects we purchased in the spring depended on how we did at the sale in December. These were times when you
could go to the sales yard and pick up crossbred bulls. When the west coast market changed and the crossbreds were no
longer coming through the sales, we decided to take the big step into cow ownership.
Rod had always said, if we were to buy any females he wanted to
begin with something from Alex Naccarato. Each time we would see Alex, Rod would ask him if he wanted to sell any heifers
and for the longest time the answer was always, "No". I guess the squeeking wheel gets the grease. Finally,
Alex agreed and we picked out our five heifers in November 1999. Along with our five heifers from Alex, Ernie Schaefer,
a partner on some of our bulls, gave us two heifers sired by our bull, #500. We had our foundation females consisting
of only seven head.
Julio Moreno had known Rod over the years. He was
kind enough to loan us a bull for our first calf crop. We never pursued the bull's pedigree but Julio thought he
was either a Whitewater son or a Typhoon son. We only had two bulls out of that crop. One out of a Schaefer cow, #910 and
the other out of our Naccarato #6, Dirty Sally. Unfortunately, the Schaefer bull, Little Julio, was killed by others
in a fight. T16 was our first bull calf. He was used as a sire, what we like to refer as "linebreeding".
Out of that cross we have raised some bulls with desire including a nice little bull T40 Wild Willy. T40 was used
back on a couple heifers this year that will be strong on that Oscar side.
In
the fall of 2003 Rod traveled to Brad Fudge's in Texas to pick up some young Frick bulls we had purchased on an online auction.
Rod noticed a bull in a different pen whose looks impressed him. That bull came home with him as a breeding bull.
He was used for our first outcross and has been an impressive sire. He is Wilfong #12 and simply is called "Bob".
His pedigree favors the Kephart lineage. He sired our 2005, 2006 and some of our 2008-09 calves. We are very pleased
with what he put into our program.
In 2007 we purchased #120 Wine Slinger
who is a son of the great Strawberry Wine. We used him as a sire 08/09 along with 12 We also purchased
a young bull from Austin Meier through the Rice Sale that is sired by Barnstormer(Houdini son) and out of Blueberry Muffin
(Blueberry Wine daughter). We have one heifer calf by him that looks great. We are very excited about our future
possibilities. Most recently we bought two full brothers by Houdini out of SJR Whitewater daughter. We also recently
purchased straws of Super Cool Semen, one of Kristi's all-time favorite bulls! His bull stats are outstanding and the
longevity of his career in the arena was rare. (02-03 NFR Bucking Bull of the Finals).
Our daughter is young and busy. Both Rod and I work full time. We love the bull business
we are in but are unable to work at it without the responsibilities of full time employment. LIfe is busy, but
life is good!
