“This sport will humble a guy real quick like. If you’re arrogant, it will humble you. Because these are wild animals—the best bucking bulls in the world—and they earned their spots just like we earned ours,” says Ryan Dirteater, an Oklahoma cowboy ranked No. 21 going into the Professional Bull Riders Built Ford Tough World Finals at the Thomas & Mack (through October 26). We’re standing in the shadows of two of the PBR’s animal athletes, Great White and retired legend Chicken on a Chain. The latter is peaceful, but Great White snorts and knocks his horns against the truck if I take one step closer. You couldn’t pay me to try and pet him, but Dirteater rides such rankness just for the chance at a paycheck. Talk about being humbled.