2026-08-03
Bareback Bronc Scoring Explained: The Lick and the Other 50 Points
Two judges. Each awards 0–25 for the rider and 0–25 for the horse. Four numbers, maximum 100. Simple structure, and half of it has nothing to do with you.
The rider half: the lick
Bareback bronc spurring is visibly different from saddle bronc and it is the thing judges are watching:
- Knees come up as the horse rises
- Spurs roll up the horse's shoulders
- Legs straighten
- Spurs return over the shoulder point, ready for the next jump
The completeness and timing of that stroke is what riders call the lick, and it is where the rider marks come from.
What judges are specifically assessing:
- Spurring technique — is the stroke full, or is it a token movement
- Toes turned out, and how far they stay that way
- Continuity — every jump, all eight seconds
- Control
- Willingness to take what the horse brings — riding the horse rather than surviving it
That last one is the difference between a 19 and a 23 on the same horse, and it is the hardest to fake.
Where rider marks are actually lost
Almost always in the last two or three seconds. The arm is gone, the grip is going, and the stroke shortens — the knees do not come as high, the spurs do not roll as far, the toes come in.
From the chute it looks like the same ride throughout. On video, second-by-second, it is obvious. Which is exactly the kind of thing worth measuring rather than remembering: where in the eight seconds your form starts to come apart, tracked over a season.
And notice that the fix for it is not technique work. It is grip and conditioning — see why careers are short.
The horse half
Power, height, direction change, difficulty.
Same principle as saddle bronc: a horse that bucks hard and changes direction marks better than one that bucks hard in a straight line, because it is harder to ride.
Which means up to 50 of your 100 points were determined when the draw came out. You cannot win on a horse that will not mark, however good the lick is.
Why the split matters more than the total
Two 76s:
- Rider 20+20, horse 18+18. You rode well on a plain horse. Nothing more was available.
- Rider 15+16, horse 22+23. You had a good horse and left points on it.
Those tell you completely different things about what to do next, and a results sheet reading “76” tells you neither. That is why we store all four component numbers rather than the total.
Tracked across a season, the split answers two questions:
- Am I improving? If totals are rising but rider marks are flat, you are drawing better, not riding better.
- Am I drawing badly, or does it just feel that way? Your average horse mark against the field's answers it.
And judge splits
Where two carded officials marked the same eight seconds differently is genuinely interesting over enough rides — it says something about which parts of a ride get read consistently and which are more subjective. We keep both judges' numbers rather than just the sum.