Meet Sand Trap, a 1,600-pound bull that puts fear into the hearts and souls of cowboys who try unsuccessfully to ride him.

benjie sanders / arizona daily star

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Sand Trap has a lightning white coat and a single horn that curves downward, spiraling into the crook of his neck.

He is an elegant beast, snarling through fuming nostrils, kicking up his front leg as if to charge. At La Fiesta de los Vaqueros, no bucking bull is more feared and coveted.

No one has ridden Sand Trap for eight seconds — the minimum time needed for a qualifying ride — meaning the first person who does is due a big payday.

When Sand Trap entered the arena this past weekend, the ride lasted a little more than a second. His next ride will be Sunday in the bull riding finals.

"He just really turns back and bucks right from the gate," said Rhett Beutler, who bred Sand Trap. He and his father Bennie run the Oklahoma-based Beutler & Son Rodeo Co., which is supplying the livestock at La Fiesta.

"All the cowboys know him and want to get on him," he said.

Cooper Kanngiesser has ridden Sand Trap twice, and both rides lasted about a half second. "He bucks hard," he said. "He's the real deal."

Drawing a bull like Sand Trap is, if anything, a test of a cowboy's optimism.

Some cowboys, seeing the matchup as guaranteed defeat, simply withdraw from the rodeo. Others look at it as a chance to make their mark.

"If you can get it done, then you have a great opportunity to, if not win the rodeo, win a whole bunch of money," said Gary Williams, a former bull rider for 16 years who is also general manager for La Fiesta.

But if a cowboy fails, his rodeo is over without a paycheck. He becomes just another footnote in Sand Trap's legend.

Williams described bull riding in psychological terms, saying it's 95 percent mental. Physically, anyone can ride a bull, he said. The real trick is working up the guts to get on one. As such, the real key is controlling your fear.

At this point, Sand Trap, all 1,600 pounds of him, instills plenty of fear.

"He's got the mental leverage because of his reputation. Word gets out fast," he said. "The leverage he's got is that guys are trying too hard not to make mistakes, to make the perfect ride."

Kanngiesser was a case in point.

"When you draw a tough bull like that, you have to have everything in order," he said.

Sand Trap is tough — just looking at him can be wonderfully intense — but it is not by accident. He has come of age at a time when breeders keep DNA registries, track their stock through databases and are even, in extreme cases, cloning livestock.

In Sand Trap's case, he was simply bred. His father was a renowned bucking bull named Skull's Pet.

His mother was a little more inconspicuous: Cow #110.

Despite his bucking genes, Sand Trap, like most other bulls, had to be taught the craft of bucking. At about 18 months, Beutler would strap a dummy to Sand Trap's back in the hopes of kickstarting his genes while getting him used to riders. It is a common practice to bring out a bull's buck.

"You could always tell he was going to buck," Beutler said.

By about three years, Sand Trap had graduated to practice rides — and that was pretty much the only time anyone could stay on.

Now that he is six, he is hitting his A game.

A good bull will buck until about 10 years old, Beutler said.

So, what happens to a bucking bull that can no longer buck? Most, Beutler said, get sold off to amateur bull riders who want to practice or high school clubs that are looking for a beginner's bull.

But Beutler keeps a few of his most prized retired bulls on the ranch.

There, they live a bull's bohemian life, of sorts: eating, sleeping and breeding.

Sand Trap, still at the peak of his game, already has a spot reserved.

"He's got the attitude and everything else," Beutler said, with a hint of pride. "There are very few bulls that just shine as a superstar."