Stock contractor Terry Williams and Texas businessman Joel Logan founded Championship Bull Riding (CBR) in Carthage, Texas, in 2002. ProRodeo Hall of Fame cowboy[2] and four-time world champion bull rider Tuff Hedeman was an integral part of the live event production and an ambassador for the organization from 2011 to 2018 after serving as president from 2005 to 2011. In early 2018, Hedeman left CBR to start his own organization: the Tuff Hedeman Bull Riding Tour.[3]
From 2009 through 2018, CBR awarded its annual World Champion a $100,000 bonus, and from 2013 through 2017, the winning rider of the World Finals event average was awarded $50,000.
In the summer of 2009, CBR launched the Million Dollar Bull Team Challenge. In these events, teams of 10 stock contractors with three bulls per team competed against each other at selected CBR events by showcasing their bulls against riders for large payout purses and accumulated points towards the year-end Bull Team Challenge championship.[4] The Million Dollar Bull Team Challenge was first held by the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) at certain Built Ford Tough Series (BFTS) events in 2008.[5] However, it was discontinued by said organization after that one year, before being picked up by CBR the following year. Also in the summer of 2009, CBR launched a series of residency events at Cowtown Coliseum in the Historic Stockyards in Fort Worth, Texas, known as the Horizon Series, in which up-and-coming riders competed to try and work their way up to the elite, televised tour.[6]
The Horizon Series became a traveling tour beginning with the 2010 CBR season.[7] In the summer of that year, the Horizon Series expanded include to 52 events at Cowtown Coliseum, as well as events at Billy Bob's Texas, also in the Fort Worth Stockyards.[8][9] Also in 2010, Cinch Jeans became the title sponsor of the televised CBR tour, thus becoming the Cinch CBR Tour.[10]
In 2013, the Cinch CBR Tour was renamed the Road to Cheyenne Tour.
CBR's Road to Cheyenne Tour and its subsidiary Horizon Series visited over 70 venues annually across the United States.[11]
From 2013 to 2018, CBR's televised Road to Cheyenne Tour was conducted in the proprietary 8 Second Challenge format. 24 riders would compete in the first round, and those who made a successful eight-second ride got paid $500. The top 12 riders based on scores returned to the second round, and those who made a successful eight-second ride got paid $750. The top four riders in the second round would move on to the third and final round and each rider, regardless if they made a successful eight-second ride or not, got paid $1,000. If the event leader rode his bull in the championship round and ended up scoring the most points, he received up to a $20,000 bonus. However, in the middle of the 2018 season, due to many requests from contestants, CBR's Road to Cheyenne Tour returned to a previous competition format where 35 riders would compete in a regular season event for a purse of $30,000. All 35 riders would compete in the long round and the top 15 based on scores would compete in the championship round. The winner of the event would get paid a minimum of $10,000. When the regular season ended, the top 35 riders in the world standings (combining Road to Cheyenne Tour and Horizon Series points) would qualify for the CBR World Finals. The rider who won the most points throughout the regular season and World Finals was crowned the CBR World Champion.
The 2018 Road to Cheyenne Tour regular-season events were not televised and CBR went out of business after its 2018 World Finals.[12] The World Finals itself was produced by the PBR and live-streamed on their paywall-subscription-based video-on-demand service, RidePass (which became a free, ad-supported channel on Pluto TV in July 2021).[13]
After CBR's collapse, the Million Dollar Bull Team Challenge became re-affiliated with the PBR and its events now take place within PBR Velocity Tour stops.[14] The bull-riding events at Cowtown Coliseum that were previously sanctioned by CBR are now also sanctioned by the PBR.[15]
