The sensation is nothing new to the agricultural industries sophomore. Miller has been riding bulls since he was eight years old, but his dream of doing so has been alive since he was “baby-sized.”? “I used to sleep through the rodeo and wake up for the bull riding,” he said.

Miller started training in rodeo clinics when he was 12 years old and said that was a major turning point in his bull riding career. He went from riding steers, gripping on for dear life, to riding full-sized bulls and learning how to execute the motions that come with it.

There’s much more to bull riding than clinging on to the animal. It’s all in the hips and the rider’s free arm.

Riders must hold up their free arms in the air as the bull spins and bucks. If the free arm moves out of position, a domino effect follows. An out of place free arm causes the rider’s hips, which are crucial to remaining on the bull, to pivot the wrong way.

Miller has felt genuine fear towards a bull only once. When he was 16, he rode a bull that had broken a rider’s eye sockets, his nose, ripped off his top lip and knocked six of his teeth out — just the day before.

Even with this knowledge, Miller swallowed his fear and rode. He emerged unscathed.

“If you’re scared, you’re just gonna get hurt, so you just might as well not even get on,” he said.

Miller has been bruised and battered by his experiences in the ring. Some of his injuries were especially brutal. He has endured 14 dislocated ribs, six broken fingers, two broken teeth and three dislocated shoulders.

One incident led to a broken eye socket that left him legally blind for a month.

However, he said no injury can deter him from continuing with the sport.

“It’s what I love, it’s what I do,” he said. “I get kind of irritated when I don’t get on anything that bucks for a long time. I feel like I’m not doing anything productive.”

Miller has also lived through many good days since he started riding.

He said one of his proudest moments was when he rode in the National Little Britches Rodeo finals competition. Miller went into the competition ranked as 42nd in bull riding in the world. At the end, he was 14th.

Now Miller is focusing on learning how to ride horses in saddle bronc competitions. He is also a member of the MSU Rodeo Club, a club consisting of about 40 members. The group recently hosted the 45th Annual Spartan Stampede.

“This is what I’ve wanted to do for my entire life,” he said. “I wanna spend the rest of my life making money doing this.”