Bones, one of the greatest rodeo bulls of all time who retired at the peak of his career after winning his second championship in 2010 and was to spend the next 14 years in the company of expectant cows, lay down yesterday, closed his eyes and died peacefully on the North Carolina farm where he had enjoyed a royal retirement. He was 21 years old.

While Bushwacker is generally considered the GOAT of the sport, many experts say the second best is Bones, who defeated the favorite Bushwacker in 2010 to win his second world championship title.

After 43 outs in the PBR and only five qualified rides (90.7% drop rate), Bones’ owner Tom Teague immediately retired the 7-year-old. He wanted his valuable bull to retire as a winner.

“I got in a lot of trouble for not taking him to every event,” Teague said. “‘Well, a boxer doesn’t box every day,’ I would say. I love all my animals, but he was very special. I took good care of him.”

Bones’ most famous trip came outside of the annual points race – a $20,000 bet at the Built Ford Tough Series event at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City in February 2009.

Bones was 13-0 at the time. Some speculated that no cowboy could ride him. Fellow North Carolina native JB Mauney said he was no ordinary cowboy.

Mauney scored 93.50 points, the highest score of Bones’ career.

In 2014, Bones became the fourth bull to be awarded the sport’s highest honor for an animal athlete, the PBR Brand of Honor.

The name of Taurus is a literal description of his former self.

As a skinny calf, he was described as a “bag of bones,” recalls Teague, a North Carolina businessman who opened his address book and checkbook to give PBR the connections and money it needed to get on television in the sport’s early years. He also co-owned world champion bulls Little Yellow Jacket, Mossy Oak Mudslinger and Big Bucks.

Bones was the first world champion bull that Teague owned and raised outright.

Teague is a successful businessman with a keen eye for recognizing and promoting greatness.

When Teague attended his first bull riding event with his son Lacy, he got caught up in the energy, excitement and thrill of the crowd and thought, “My goodness, this thing could be a little NASCAR.”

He wanted to know who was organizing this event. A cowboy pointed to a man in a white shirt, PBR boss Randy Bernard. The men started talking and became friends. Teague told Bernard that if investment opportunities in professional bull riding arose, he would be interested.

Soon after, Bernard called, and Teague helped PBR buy back the television rights, allowing the sport to be broadcast on NBC and setting in motion a success story that continues to this day.

It would be fair to say that if it weren’t for Tom Teague, Teague’s best friend, NASCAR legend and owner of the Carolina Cowboys Richard Childress, wouldn’t have a PBR team in an expanding bull riding league today.

Moreover, just as he was about to sell her, he saw potential in the cow that would give birth to Bones.

Before the cow was officially put up for sale, she jumped into a cordoned off area where the water pumps were located. While a plan was hatched to get her out, she jumped to safety like a reindeer.

“I said, ‘Take her off the sale, I’ll make a calf out of her!'” Teague said. “And that’s where Bones came from. We had to put her in a pen like a deer. She was a big cow, looked like a Brahma and could jump.”

The mother would never give birth to another world champion bull. With Bones she had given birth to an athlete the likes of which only exists once in a million.

At first it didn’t look like that.

As a one-year-old calf, Bones appeared shabby and ragged, a loner who was mostly alone.

Teague separated him from the others and made sure he got plenty of food. Bones gained muscle, weighed 1,500 pounds, and became a phenomenon with a signature move: he would jump up and then pull his head down to rip riders off his back.

“Bones was a super athlete,” said PBR co-founder Ty Murray. “He could reach heights and depths with his kicks that you wouldn’t have thought a bull physically capable of.”

“I never thought he would be the bull he was,” Teague admitted. “And what more can you ask of a bull? I wanted him to win. I love all my animals, but he was very special to me. I put him in a special pasture at home. I fed him grain every day, gave him alfalfa and the best hay. And he had a female to keep him company.”

In some years, Teague Bucking Bulls had multiple bulls in the Short Round. Teague left the cattle business in 2014. Bones was his last bull.

When Teague’s brother Randy found Bones lying quietly in the pen Thursday morning, he was still warm. The ground around him was untouched. There was no kicking, no fighting.

After a long, great life, he had passed to the other side.

The bones will be buried on the farm right next to the three-time world champion in the Little Yellow Jacket.