At the end of a dirt road on the outskirts of Vero Beach, an enormous American flag beckons spectators from near and far. In the distance on I-95, trucks salute with a litany of horns as they drive by. Dust rises into the night sky as the music swells and an announcer welcomes the crowd with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer. Flanked by bleachers and decks full of fans of all ages, the arena is reminiscent of Field of Dreams, for it was built with grit and people came. What started as a hobby for Shelley and John Englehart is now Overpass Arena, where the classic conflict of man versus nature is fought, eight seconds at a time.
While the conflict at a rodeo may be man versus bull or man versus bronc, the conflict that inspired the origin of Overpass Arena was much more pedestrian: woman versus man’s accumulated “stuff.” A little over a year ago, Shelley Englehart aired her frustrations about her husband’s collection of items in the garage. John good-naturedly told her she needed to “find a hobby” so she would quit bugging him. Little did he know what he set in motion.
Not long after his request for her to find a hobby, the couple attended a rodeo in Billings, Montana. Shelley found herself fascinated by the bucking bulls; she couldn’t stop thinking about their instincts and training. When they got back to their hotel, she performed an online search for “the life of a PBR [Professional Bull Riding Association] bull” and the obsession began.
Now that Shelley was fully immersed in research, her new hobby was locked and loaded. While John had been in the cattle business for years, bucking bulls struck a different chord for her. To Shelley, bulls were athletes, complete bosses in the arena; yet they acted like children behind the scenes. She wanted to know why, and she wanted to know it all.
Figuring there was no better way to learn than to dive in, the Engleharts decided to purchase a bull. They partnered with Randy Broome of Rafter B Bucking Bulls in Georgia, and while they meant to stop at just one, they wound up buying into an entire breeding program that gave them more than 30 bulls. The idea of being able to care for mothers that would give them the next generation to raise was impossible for Shelley to ignore. The fact that they had little to no idea what to do with these bulls didn’t matter, because, as John says, “Shelley is the missing link who helped me put all the puzzle pieces of my life together and gave it direction. I knew we could do all of this because of her.”…