TWELVE-YEAR-OLD PARKER HOOKS has been riding bulls for half his life. He started on the backs of sheep—what’s known as mutton busting—at age three at the Lea County Fair and Rodeo in his hometown of Lovington and rode his first small bull when he was six. In 2022, at age nine, Hooks won the calf riding championship at the Youth Bull Riders World Finals in Abilene, Texas. This past July, the seventh grader returned to Abilene to take another shot at the title. Following in the footsteps of two of his idols—ProRodeo Hall of Famer Myrtis Dightman, known as the Jackie Robinson of rodeo, and Charlie Sampson, the first African American to win the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association bull rider title—Hooks has his sights set on a professional bull-riding career.
We don’t live on a farm, so when I have a rodeo coming up, I practice every week for an hour or two on a friend’s uncle’s ranch in Hobbs.
I have a barrel shaped like a bull in the backyard. I put my bull rope on it and I buck it myself or I have someone else buck it.
I stay on for 10 seconds and then get off. I do that four or five times in a row. That’s part of my practice.
I was four or five when I started watching bull-riding YouTube videos. They taught me how to put my bull rope on the bull and adjust it.
I have my own video on YouTube where I show the four things in my rodeo bag: rope, glove, helmet, and vest. The helmet and vest are the most important because they protect me.
I go through three or four leather gloves in a year.
My favorite places to compete are Big Spring, Odessa, and Abilene, in Texas; and Clovis and Lovington, in New Mexico. Abilene is special because I won there. The farthest I’ve traveled to compete is Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2023.
When I get on the bull, it’s in the chute and can’t really move that much. I’m thinking, Focus, don’t quit, and just be ready for whatever happens.
I wrap my rope around my hand, and that’s when I nod and the chute opens.
Injuries aren’t about if they’re going to happen, it’s when they’re going to happen.
Once the bull leaves the chute, you don’t know what’s going to happen.
My worst injury was when I thought I broke my tailbone.
My pubic bone was out of place. It didn’t keep me off the bulls. I kept practicing.
I’ve stayed on the bull for eight seconds a lot.
The buckle I won at the World Championship in 2022 is pretty big, but it’s probably my second biggest one. The biggest was for sheep riding. They gave me this big old buckle that fits my dad.
He tried it on, but he doesn’t wear it. I wouldn’t let him if he wanted to.
When I first started riding calves, I had a friend named Jeremy Frizell, who was in high school. We were at a rodeo, and he started calling me Parker “Sticky” Hooks.
“Sticky” means I’m sticking on the bull.
My goal is to become an adult professional bull rider after I finish high school and get my pro rodeo card when I’m 18.
My heroes are my dad, because he served in the military, and basically my whole family.
I think I’m a role model because when I go to youth rodeos, kids will be like, “Hey, Parker.” They want me to help them, so I help them all the time.
It’s just a great feeling to be able to help little kids like I was helped by older kids.
Follow Parker Hooks on Instagram (@ParkerStickyHooks).