Kinky Buckers Looks Back on Grand Funk's 2024 Bull of the Year Season

AIRDRIE, Atla. – There was no better bucking bull in Canada during the 2024 season than Kinky Buckers’ Grand Funk who was crowned the PBR Canada Bull of the Year.

Awarded at the PBR Canada National Finals inside Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, annually, the honour for the year’s top bull, and its accompanying $10,000 bonus, is highly sought.  

Having previously been won by the likes of Two Bit Bucking Bulls’ Happy Camper, the Wild Hoggs’ Pound the Alarm, Vold’s VJV Slash and Darin Eno’s Unabomber, there is no question bulls who win this award are among legends of the sport. 

Kinky Buckers’ owner and operator, Kyle Larson, said that adding Grand Funk and the Kinky brand to the list of champions is what you work for all year long, and dream of all your life -- It’s the goal you set for yourself throughout the year to get to walk across that stage and grab that big cheque.

And for Larson, getting to watch his daughter Sage and Dillon [Tateson] go across the stage inside the home of the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers made everything worth it.

Born in 2019 at the property of award-winning breeder Lorne High and Flying High Rodeo CO., then 3-year-old Grand Funk caught Larson’s eye at a semi pro event in 2022, and the rest is history. The black bovine with a white face simply bucked and the following season Larson made the call. 

“It was hard not to remember him,” Larson said. “We knew we wanted him on the truck after we watched him the year after that in Byemoor, Alberta. It was hard not to be impressed with his athleticism. After that event, the call was made to Lorne [High] to purchase Grand Funk.”

In the bull’s first season on the PBR Canada circuit, he won the 2023 PBR Canada Bull of the National Finals honor. At that moment Larson knew he was destined for greater. Proving himself right, Grand Funk won the Bull of the Year Honor the very next season, an accomplishment Larson credits to the bull’s consistency. 

“Last year Grand Funk won the Bull of the PBR Canada National Finals and that’s a big award and hard to win because there are so many good bulls there. Afterwards, Zane Lambert came up to us and gave us a congratulations and told us he thought that could be the Bull of the Year. That really meant a lot hearing it and changed our view on the upcoming season,” Larson said. 

“He was explosive and exciting every time we took him somewhere, he tried his guts out every time. It was also special all year long that Grand Funk was near one of the first bulls picked in the championship round every time. That is really special to us because it means the guys like him and want to get on him.”

2024 PBR Canada Stock Contractor of the Year X6 Ranch’s Lindsay Carlier said that he felt Grand Funk was well deserving of the award. 

“Lorne High raised that bull, and Kyle bought him from him and has done such a good job with him. He is just so consistent. He bucks hard, he gives guys a chance to win every time, and he is good in the box. Easy to handle, good to be around. He is a pure bucking bull, bucks nearly the same every time, too,” Carlier remarked. 

“I thought it was well deserved. He proved it all year. That is a true Bull of the Year, start to finish. A lot like Happy Camper deserved to win it because they were good from the beginning of the year to the end of it.”

Winning the award with a 44.13-point season average, besting runner-up Ringling Road from Wilson Rodeo by 0.3 points, Larson says two of Grand Funk’s trips stand out from the season. 

“The best ride was early in the season, Nick Tetz was 89 to win Lethbridge. That stands out because after that it seemed like everyone wanted to draw Grand Funk,” Larson said. 

“But our favourite rank trip was at the Koye Larson Memorial, where Grand Funk bucked off Chanse Switzer to the tune of 44.5 points and got the High Marked Bull Award at our event in Brooks, Alberta in May.”

Having grown up in and around the sport, Larson says there isn’t anything he would rather be doing than raising and hauling bucking bulls to PBR events. 

“I grew up around rodeo, there was nothing else I would rather do. I love hauling and raising animals for the love of the animals,” he said. 

“And the places they take you, all the friends we’ve made and all the places we’ve seen are thanks to these bulls. I already love the sport, and the animals, this is just motivation to achieve it again next year. If you only did this sport for the accolades, you wouldn’t last long, they are so far and few between. Lots of highs and lows.”