South Buffalo Township’s Blair headed to bull riding Junior World Finals
SOUTH BUFFALO TWP, Armstrong County — Atop an irritated beast, Logan Blair puts himself at ease.
He closes his eyes, inhales, and counts to one. He lets it out — goes to two — then repeats the breathing exercise until he’s ready for the bumpy jaunt ahead. There won’t be any room to think once he nods his head and the gate in front of him swings open.
“I try to stay away from all the people that would try to scare me,” said Blair, a 14-year-old bull rider who daylights as a student at Freeport Area Middle School. “I just stay calm and meditate a little bit.”
Through the three-plus years of bumps and bruises that come with competing in the sport, that measure of composure has served Blair well. He’s picked up on such mental fortitude techniques by training in Texas with Gary Leffew, a Pro Rodeo Hall of Famer and the 1970 National Finals Rodeo average champion.
“We teach visualization,” Leffew said. “He knows how to visualize your perfect rides for yourself. ... I have him see the best rider in the world and keep visualizing him and then just say, ‘That’s me. I can do that.’”
Blair will be among the best in his age group when he attends the Junior World Finals, which take place from Dec. 7-16 in Las Vegas and feature some of the most promising young cowboys and cowgirls in North America.
Rationally, Blair’s mother, Amanda Mailki, didn’t prefer that her sons test the might of a thrashing shorthorn.
“There’s a youth rodeo that’s out of Ford City out at Crooked Creek,” she said. “They had a day where you could just try it if you wanted to before you pay your membership fees.
“I was really hoping they would, like, run the other way once they got on it. From there, they loved it. He hasn’t looked back.”
That first thrill of trying to remain upright kept Blair wanting to come back for more.
“It was just exciting and kind of scary at the same time,” said Blair, who lives in South Buffalo Township.
Blair quit playing football, baseball, and basketball to focus on being a cowboy.
“He’s a full-time bull rider now, so we’ve been everywhere — from all the way to Wyoming to Michigan to Texas,” Mailki said. “He’s heading to Iowa in the summer.”
Of course, it’s almost impossible not to take any lumps. This is the third year in a row that Blair has qualified for the World Junior Finals. The prior two, he’d been nursing an injury.
“Both of my sons have needed a LifeFlight within six months of each other because of this sport — and they love it,” Mailki said. “They’re back it at every weekend.”
Blair’s older brother, Riley, suffered a Grade IV liver laceration while competing in February. He spent a week in the intensive care unit, nearly half a year after Logan suffered a gruesome compound leg fracture.
That injury bound Blair to a wheelchair for a while and, before easing into physical therapy, he said that he was hesitant to put too much weight on it. Still, it couldn’t keep him from eventually hopping back on the bull.
However frightened, Mailki supports her sons’ passions. She cheers them on and has a camera roll full of memories from their events.
“I’m always there for each and every single ride,” she said. “It’s the only thing you can do, to support them and to get them all the practice you can — even if you have to drive four hours for a practice pen on a Monday night.”
Some of the most impactful lessons Blair has gleaned have been from Leffew, who’s trained every Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association bull riding champion for at least the past 15 years.
Leffew used the same approach of manifestation that he passes on today, helping him react with instinct rather than reason.
“When I used to do my drills ... I’d jump off and raise my hands and walk around under the stars,” he said. “Just pretend I’d won all these big rodeos. But, when I got there in real life, I felt at home there. I felt like I’d been there before.
“I’d see other guys that could ride the wind at a smaller rodeo get in that situation and they’d start worrying about messing up. When you worry about messing up, you’re programming yourself to mess up.”
Finally healthy, Blair aims to put that advice to good use in the Neon Capital of the World. He looks forward to riding the bulls there and going to see the Grand Canyon, too.
“Your adrenaline starts running and your heart starts pounding,” Leffew said of competing in Vegas. “The excitement of it, when you channel that, you’ll really ride over your head.”
In the grand scheme of things, Blair is shooting for a world top 10 ranking.
“I’m trying to go as long as my body can,” he said.
