Good Ride, Cowboy
by Missy Nilan

Oklahoma State University Cowboys Luke Reed, Kyle Stein and Patrick Sievert began the 2004 fall semester — their senior year in agricultural engineering — working to help prepare cowboys for riding.

All OSU biosystems agricultural engineering seniors are introduced to their year-long senior capstone project, BAE 4012 and BAE 4022 Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Capstone, at the beginning of the fall semester and complete the project with a presentation at the end of the following spring semester. Reed, Stein and Sievert had a unique project: design and build a bucking horse machine.

“I am always looking for interesting, real-world projects for students to work on,” said Paul Weckler, assistant professor in the OSU Department of Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering.

The Oklahoma Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence and the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology make projects accessible to students through the Application Engineers Program. The program works with small manufacturers in rural areas of Oklahoma to help provide engineering assistance.

Knowing that, Paul Walenciak, manufacturing extension agent for the Oklahoma Alliance for Manufacturing Excellence, came across a company with an idea, one he was sure would interest Weckler.

The Idea

Rockin’ B Bucking Machines is a small company in Cheyenne, Okla., whose mechanical bucking bulls have worldwide recognition.

“We market to 10 or 12 different countries and to every state, “said Bill Beaty, owner and president of Rockin’ B Bucking Machines.

Beaty’s initial idea was to build a mechanical bucking horse for professional rodeo cowboys who compete in the rough stock events of bareback riding and saddle bronc riding.

Rockin’ B Bucking Machines are known for their mechanical bucking bull machines. Ty Murray, seven-time World All-Around Champion Cowboy, endorses their machines. Celebrities, including Madonna and Brooks and Dunn, own bucking bull machines. The machines have been seen in one of Madonna’s music videos, as well as on her concert tours.

Currently, their bucking bull machines can be found at fairs, rodeos and bars where vendors sell rides on the machine.

“I want to broaden our market more to rodeo cowboys,” Beaty said.

When professional rodeo cowboys told Beaty they wanted a bucking machine with the movements of a bucking horse rather than a bucking bull, he decided he would accept their challenge.

The Project

After the students received their project assignment, they visited with Beaty, collecting research and drawing plans using engineering computer programs.

“We designed the entire project in Pro Engineer and Pro Mechanica,” Stein said.

The students found a bucking bronc executes different movements in comparison with a bucking bull.

“A bronc works off a vertical aspect, whereas a bull jumps from the front to rear legs in a pivoting motion,” Stein said. “A horse gets completely off the ground.”

The use of hydraulics was the students’ first idea to power the needed movement for the bucking machine. However, hydraulics have a tendency to leak, and Beaty declined the idea.

“Most of the machines I sell are used in buildings,” Beaty said. “I wouldn’t sell nearly as many as I do if my machines leaked on the floors.”

After discussion between using computer-controlled linear actuators, which convert electricity to mechanical force, or a pitman arm system, which is a series of rods and shafts used to change the direction of movement, much like what is used on Rockin’ B’s bucking bull machines, the students had a challenge.

“We researched both aspects, finding that we couldn’t achieve the movement we needed with linear actuators without going overboard on price,” Stein said. “Linear actuators cost $2,000 each, and this project required the use of three.

“With the total being around $6,000, not including the price of a computer control system we still had to design, the use of linear actuators was way out of the budget.”

The students then were forced to approach the project by maximizing the lower technology approach and using a series of pitman arms.

The Change

With the project underway, the students presented their findings and progress at the end of the fall 2004 semester. After the presentation, Beaty informed the students he wanted to change the project.

“Not only did he want a bucking horse, but also a horse that would simulate a riding horse,” Weckler said.

Beaty wanted a mechanical horse for people who wanted to ride without bucking. The new mechanical horse would walk, trot and canter like a regular horse.

“The idea shifted the focus of the project,” Stein said. “We had to be more accurate in our studies and research as to how a horse moves.”

The change in the project made the students reevaluate their initial plan of action.

“We went from building a rude, crude and general motion bucking machine to a very accurate machine that could be something you can have at a workshop where kids can learn to ride,” Stein said.

The students turned back to looking at videos of horses. They learned how a horse walks, trots and canters, as well as how their legs carry their movement through the animal. The only way for the students to achieve the exact data was to put a motion-detecting device on a horse and record the data found through tests of walking, trotting and cantering a horse.

Through research, the students found Michigan State University already had collected the needed data.

With all of the needed information at hand, the students decided a simple pitman arm system could not create all of the movement needed for all phases of the project: walk, trot, canter and buck. However, with the use of additional cam mechanisms, which tell the machine what to do, it still could be possible. The customer buying the machine could buy only one cam, either one for riding or one for bucking.

With the use of simple controls to adjust the speed and the addition of a rotating base, the bucking horse machine was ready to be tested on fellow college students.

“It brought quite a bit of attention when we took it to the Gamma Phi Beta house,” Stein said. “It’s really fun to know that at a flick of a button you can flip anyone off of the horse.”

The Future

Beaty has yet to decide the future of the mechanical horse. With the ability to market to two entirely different audiences, Beaty said he is happy with the quality of work.

“The machine could use some tweaking to smooth out the motion of the machine,” Beaty said. “But without high demand right now, we have time to work out the glitches.”

According to the students’ preliminary research, the demand for riding training devices is not strong and the current machine is too expensive for a rodeo cowboy’s income.

“We’re trying to decide if it is currently worth the effort to go ahead with it and, if we do, what direction to take,” Beaty said.

So watch the rough-stock events closely the next time you attend a rodeo. When the cowboy nods his head, the chute gate opens and a bucking horse lunges into the arena, the cowboy can make a qualified ride. Depending on Beaty’s decision, the cowboy on the back of the bucking horse might owe the development of his technique to practicing on a bucking horse machine designed by students from the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.