story by Michele Toberer
“I’ve been riding bucking horses for close to 40 years. I start thinking maybe I’ll quit, but they keep calling me saying they need some more players and that’s all it takes, I’ll get on another one. It’s hard to quit!” Harold Miller went to a rodeo in his hometown of Seneca, South Carolina in 1975, after his friend, Steve Fox, told him about riding bulls. At just 18, and with no rodeo experience behind him, Harold stepped down over the back of a bull and hung on, “I was so scared I didn’t even hear the whistle blowing, I just held on tight and stayed on as long as I could! When I came back to the bucking chutes, they told me I won, and I couldn’t even believe it! I won $250 that night and I got hooked for sure. I started thinking I could get rich quick riding bulls, but the next 10 or 15 bulls threw me on my head, and I thought, man, I don’t know about this after all.” Harold didn’t give it up though, and he and Steve spent the next 5 years working construction during the week and heading to rodeos every weekend. “We would get on them to practice and get better, and we’d enter wherever we could. We didn’t make much money doing it then, but we were learning and improving.”
Harold continued to ride bulls over the following two decades and added saddlebronc and bareback riding to the mix. He had a love for riding and the adrenaline rush it brought, and he competed in several associations in the southeast, including the International Professional Rodeo Association, while also working as a farrier and training horses for clients. “There weren’t a lot of black cowboys riding in rodeo back when I started, and I felt like I had to not give up and prove myself. I felt like there were people that didn’t think I’d make it and it made me want to at least outlast them!” Harold got on his first bucking horse in 1980, and after riding both saddlebronc and bareback horses for several years, settled in to just bareback horses. “I broke my wrist twice in the 90’s while I was riding bareback horses, and it got to where it hurt too much to bend my wrist like I needed to in order to ride the bulls, so I stopped riding them in 2000. I could tape my wrist up pretty good to still ride the horses, so I’ve just ridden broncs ever since.”
Harold is a three-time IFR qualifier in bareback riding, most recently qualifying for IFR49 this past January, at the age of 62. “When I started out there were bunches of cowboys riding, and over the years the numbers have went up and down. Some of the guys I ride with now, I rode with their daddies and even their grand-daddies. Sometimes I think, my goodness I’ve got to stop this, but it’s hard to stop. A lot of people say that I’m too old for this and I should quit, and I thought maybe they were right, so I stopped once and I actually hurt more than when I was riding. So, I thought if I’m my body is going to hurt anyways, I might as well keep making money!”
Harold has five children, Raquel, 40, Savannah, 30, Jay, 26, Allen, 25, and Colton, 3. Jay has followed Harold’s footsteps into the arena and is a PBR competitor. Harold appreciates his mom teaching him about Jesus when he was growing up, “Jesus is the number-one man, that’s for sure.” Harold is also grateful for the support of many in the rodeo industry, including Ken Treadway for always believing in his ability and encouraging him through the years.
Harold believes the future of bronc riders looks bright with this new generation of riders having miniature bucking stock associations and more opportunities to learn and grow in the sport. “I’m getting a late start this year, but I’m going to try to blast off in May and stay ahead of the game so I can qualify for IFR50. I’m going to try to get this old body pumped back up one more time!”
