If you ask the average person what they dreamed of doing at age twelve, it’s likely that it wouldn’t have much of a connection to their adult life. Not so with Mirko Martineau of Stanstead, who later this month will be headed to Oklahoma to compete in the International Finals Rodeo (IFR), the championship event of the International Professional Rodeo Association (IPRA), as a competitive bull rider. “I didn’t start at twelve, but I started seeing it on TV and the internet around then and I found it really cool,” Martineau said “I asked my parents, ‘hey mom and dad, can I ride bulls?’ and of course their first answer was that there’s no way in hell I was going to do that.” The young bull rider said that it took him another three years to get his parents to agree, but the dream finally became a reality for him during a one-day bull riding workshop at the Tardif school in Thetford Mines.
“I got on two steers that day and I just got real hooked,” he recalled. “After that I’ve just been progressing and progressing as much as I can.” Now 18, Martineau has quickly bucked his way onto the competitive scene. Having only started to compete in 2017 and set back slightly by a broken nose and concussion in the summer of 2018, the rider told The Record that he was ‘blown away’ with his progress in the 2019 season that led up to his qualification for the IFR. See full story in the Friday, Jan. 3 edition of The Record.
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