It took Mirko Martineau three years to finagle his parents into letting him try bull riding. “I was 12 years old when I asked mom. Well, what do you think her answer was? Hell to the No!” Martineau laughs. “You’re never going to do that. Over my dead body, kind of thing.”
So, it was back to the drawing board, as he never let go of that dream since. At 15, he finally talked his parents into a visit to the Tardif Ranch in Thetford Mines. “I didn’t necessarily have the ok from my parents to go ride. I asked my parents to go watch a bull riding, and then I kind of got on anyway and went on from there. Never really stopped since,” a story he has obviously told many times since.
Just five years later, 20-year-old Martineau has pulled off the highway in Oklahoma. His mom flew back to Stanstead earlier today. He and his girlfriend Marjorie Veilleux are taking a detour through Texas before turning north. Martineau has just left the four-day International Finals Rodeo (IFR) with $2,800 prize money in his pocket and big decisions rolling through his mind.
Subscribe to The Record for the full story and more
