Meyers finds a passion for bull riding after traveling to rural Minnesota ranch

Photo by Lena Richards
Peter Meyers from England had no plans to get on a bucking bull, that is until after he stepped onto the Meech Ranch east of Nimrod during his first ever trip to America. Here he is on his first bull during this year’s Labor Day weekend Bull Bash, hanging on for three seconds.

By Matthew Johnson

Reporter

The Troy and Peg Meech family have welcomed bull riders to their ranch two miles east of Nimrod from all over the world including Mexico, Australia and Brazil, but now they can say they welcomed a young Englishman turned rodeo cowboy on their ranch competing on bucking bulls.

Photo by Matthew Johnson 
Peter Myers from England, right, is pictured here with Bruce Meech in front of the arena where he first experienced riding a bull at the Troy and Peg Meech Ranch east of Nimrod this past Labor Day weekend during the Bull Bash. The 18-year-old Englishman responded to a TikTok post by Bruce, and they dialogued back in forth until Bruce invited Myers to the ranch. Myers, here in America for the first time, never intended to ride a bull but his exposure to bull riding at the Meech Ranch changed everything.

Believe it or not, the opportunity started when Peter Myers, 18, from England responded to something Troy and Peg’s son, Bruce, posted on TikTok. The two clicked on the Tik and before long Bruce made Myers an offer he simply could not refuse…come to America for the first time and live on a real, honest-to-goodness, American Midwest ranch with bonafide rodeo and bull riding action. 

Myers admits this offer was really too good to pass up even though his desire to become a bull riding cowboy happened after he got here and was exposed to the bull riding experience. 

“At first, they didn’t believe me,” Myers said after telling his parents of the Meech’s invitation. 

But, following some discussions over the phone between the Myers and Meech families, it was decided that Myers would come to the ranch on a three-month holiday visa and experience first hand a different style of farming along with the American culture on an American Midwest ranch.

“I had no intention of ever getting on a bull,” said Myers, who was basically looking forward to experiencing a different way of life in America for the first time.

He first touched American soil Friday, Aug. 1, and soon after that he was exposed to bull riding. After watching it, he really wanted an opportunity to feel that adrenaline rush, something Troy Meech, owner/operator of Meech Bucking Bulls, former state bull riding champion and professional bull rider, knows all too well.

Peter’s life as he knew it changed on that Wednesday night of his third week at the ranch.

“The moment was there and I just took it,” Myers recalls. “I got on a bull and I fell in love with it.”

He does admit, however, being “terrified” as he got on the beast, but it was not the first time since his arrival that he experienced that emotion. Airport security doing their job to vet individuals coming here from other countries took Myers into a room shortly after he landed and interrogated him for a couple of hours.

“I was terrified (then),” he said.

Finally, he convinced authorities that his three-month stay here poses no threat and they released him. Later, the Meech family thought it would be fun to introduce him to the local sheriff during a visit to the ranch, an experience Myers really wasn’t interested in after the airport interrogation, but he soon found out he had nothing to worry about. 

His first bull riding competition was during the annual Nimrod Bull Bash over Labor Day weekend at the ranch. His first ride was three seconds.

Later, on the ninth bull he rode, he reached a milestone when he rode it for eight seconds. The second time he rode a bull for eight seconds was at a rodeo in Osakis and he took third place.

He took his lumps in Breckenridge, though, when shortly out of the chute he fell off a very aggressive bucking bull, thankfully only experiencing some painful bruising.

“I don’t think I was ready for that bull,” he said. “It hurt.”

He’s healed up from that now, though, and is looking to compete again the next time the opportunity comes his way, he says.

Until then, he is living at one of the best bull riding training grounds in the Midwest and in the country.

“Every day I ride bulls,” he said. “I ride bulls and explore the place.”

A few weeks ago Myers visited Wisconsin and watched nationally ranked Staples-Motley graduate Dalton Wells ride bulls.

Myers has also become a big fan of two-time PBR world champion bull rider J.B. Mauney.

“We had him (Mauney) here four or five years ago,” said Troy.

Myers is riding and watching bull riding as much as he can before going back to England where rodeo events are outlawed and, he admits, his parents think bull riding is “stupid.”

“I’m hoping to go to Iowa to watch more bull riding,” he said.

Myers flies back to England Wednesday, Oct. 29, but he’s working on obtaining a green card for the near future.

“I’m hoping to be back in January,” he said.