For more local news and photos grab a copy of the Queanbeyan Age.

In a sport where you accumulate points by trying to remain for as long as possible on the most ferocious bull, riders desire the most maniacal creatures available. But there is often a painful flipside to finding a top bucking bull.

Braidwood's Wayne Crisp has ridden some of the best bulls around and he admits it's not nice when things go sideways.

“I've had a shoulder reconstruction and couldn't ride for 15 months, I've been knocked out three times, buggered my knee, been stomped and I've had a horn go through my leg,” he said. However, the rush of hanging in there and getting out of the arena in one piece makes it all worth it.

“You can't really explain it,” Mr Crisp said. “You're just in your own little world. It's an unreal feeling.”

Routine and preparation to ride a heaving horned beast is different for everyone. And for Mr Crisp it is fairly low-key.

“I stretch a bit, bounce around, and when I get on I just think, don't quit,” he said.

When he's not entering competitions, he splits his time between shearing and training for upcoming events. At 24 he's already tasted the atmosphere and excitement of the American professional rodeo circuit. In late April he heads back to the United States to ride, before laying it all down in his rookie year in 2011. “The bulls are pretty much the same but the atmosphere and the dollars are much different,” he said.

“It's a totally different world over there. You can ride just about every day if you wanted to.”

For now however, he has his eye on success at the Queanbeyan Showground tomorrow, Saturday, March 6.

Gates open at 2pm.