Meet Najiah Knight, the 13-year-old girl upending the world of professional bull riding.
—this ain’t our first rodeo—and have come to know, more or less, what to expect: three days of brutal, bucking-bull competition to determine just who can best ride 1,600-pound bulls specifically trained to buck and kick higher and harder than your average bull; plenty of cowboy hats and boots among the audience and the riders, as New Yorkers try, with varied success, to show each other how the West is worn; the slightly odd experience of an invocation or prayer delivered before each day’s...
I asked Najiah if it was funny being the only girl on the MBR tour. “Yeah,” she said, with an ear-to-ear grin. “But I kind of earned the boys’ respect the first year I competed, because I ended up on some of the rankest bulls—I was one of the first ones who came close to riding some of them.” Despite best-laid plans, though, sometimes things go very wrong. I ask Najiah about the scar over her right eye. “That’s from Louisiana—I got my face stepped on, and my cage [the face mask at the front of her helmet] kind of ground into my face. I woke up the next morning with my eye swollen shut.” And just how long did getting her face stomped on keep her down? “Not long,” she says. “I rode the next day.
The world is starting to take notice: “Najiah is as committed as any athlete I have ever met,” says Sean Gleason, the CEO of the Professional Bull Riders tour. So are the sponsors. Najiah recently landed her first endorsement when Ariat boots—a major and longtime sponsor of PBR—signed her up to join their roster, which includes former PBR world champions Cooper Davis and Jess Lockwood, along with former rookie of the year Keyshawn Whitehorse and up-and-coming rider Ezekiel Mitchell.
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