Story by Clint Keels
Photo by Chris Jennings
Nobody does it better than Chris LeDoux when it comes to outlining the certainty of peril one may face choosing to be a rodeo cowboy. On the 1986 album Gold Buckle Dreams in a song titled “So You Want to be a Cowboy”, LeDoux pitches the questionable path in era-clever rhymes detailing glory, loss and a whole lot of try. On some of the other tracks, he documents the bumps and bruises and beers and buckles; the wins, the losses. All these little flashpoints of memory are catalogued by the narrator as the years move. The entire album may in fact be his most lyrically focused when it comes to priming the charge of inspiration set in the young cowboy took by such a fever.
Just like his Daddy once set out to do, Cleveland, South Carolina cowboy Elijah Jennings is following his own gold buckle dreams down the road and through the sky to get on whatever runs up under him with a whole lot of his very own try in tow.
Jennings has been chipping away at a career riding bulls since 2017. With dozens of buckles, titles, countless 80 point + rides, the bank account to reflect and yet most importantly, a giant helping of natural ability, anyone watching with sense will realize Jennings is destined for the distance. He is a remarkably self-aware young man able to tune out the noisy distractions that often accompany a lifestyle where the high risk for high reward stand neck and neck. He is tuned in, he’s turned on. A feat at his age, one at any considering present times. There is no question it is passion, but there is a noticeable sense of extreme fun he seems to have doing it. A mental must for longevity in the sport. There is an immediate self evident truth to this on full display watching him ride or seeing him get tapped off on one into or away from his hand. While the world of professional rodeo and getting on bulls is full of eight second feel good, fat pockets, and accolade upon accolade, favor is not always abound.
Injury is when; not if. Keep getting on long enough, ribs break, heads split like melons, bones crack and tendons will separate from wherever they once belonged. A man’s game charges a man’s price and when the miles start stacking up, collection unfortunately becomes inevitable.
In 2019, while entered at Jerome Davis’s bull riding in Archdale, North Carolina, Jennings was sidelined by a tib / fib break requiring three surgeries. It kept him out of the bucking chutes half a year, but he studied bulls, himself and other bull riders while biding the time it took to hang his rope again. Without a certain indomitable spirit, an injury of such is generally a career hard stop for most; but not Jennings. He has unbreakable in spades; it’s what he comes from. Unbothered by anything other than doctors orders and a nonfunctioning limb, he kept that fire to ride burning on the inside.
Once back on both legs, Jennings spared no moment racking up the stats and staking his claim among the up and coming generation of competitive bull riders. Traveling over two dozen or so states, he began carving his groove in stone; proving the injury to be nothing more than a painful timeout. In 2022, he won the North Carolina Jr. High School Reserve Champion title, then the hits kept coming.
Bigger money, bigger stakes and ranker bulls followed as he pursued a membership with the JRSRA and other added money bull ridings. It did not take him long to make a splash in the JRSRA either. By the time their 2023 finals rolled around for the season, Jennings fastened the championship buckle for the year onto his belt latch at the awards ceremony. Since, he’s been competing in open and jackpot bull ridings and multiple association rodeos. When they’re off the road, he’s getting on practice bulls at his house. Having a Daddy that used to rodeo helps with that.
Christopher “Chris” Jennings has gone the extra mile to make getting on bulls readily available for his sons without leaving the house. His youngest son Huntley, is following this family tradition, too, just a couple of years behind his brother. Chris has established a 24/7 if-his-boys-want-it practice pen behind his equipment shop. It is complete with tall post lights that give glow to the dark, cool fall and cold winter nights that they buck bulls once he and the boys finish up working for the day. A platform deck is set up just off the arena with a few chairs, often hosting family and friends. They open it up to other young bull riders chasing their dreams as well. Much like the practice pens he grew up going to from the mid 90’s through early 2000’s.
He knows its crucial for them to get on when they can and as much as they can if they’re serious
about going after it; there’s no phoning it in, no half-aassing it. He’s giving his boys and their friends back what bull riding gave to him; those happy memories of going down the road with his crew where freedom and fun were the constant that shaped their young lives.
The choice to follow the road, to have fun chasing down the rankest bulls and to earn a good living while doing so is a dream playing out in real time for Elijah Jennings. His hunger for it is there. The drive and motivation to compete at “The Daddy of Them All” in Calgary, the numerous and evolving new PBR Team Series events lends no question whatsoever to his sheer talent; it’s there.
It is just a matter of hanging out for a birthday. His chops for getting on and the way he is able to handle the miles speaks for itself. As long as health stays on his side, the big lights and purses of professional rodeo and professional bull riding are well within reach for the young cowboy in possession of the heart and spirit it takes follow his own gold buckle dreams.
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