VIDEO: Will (10) stuns US crowd with rodeo skills

Ten-year-old Will was at his first rodeo in the US with mum Leanne Bramham when he entered a sheep-riding competition known as “mutton bustin’” where the winner stays on the longest.

Proud Leanne (38), of Sandringham Avenue, Whiston, was visiting friends and family with Will when they went along to the opening rodeo of the season.

She said: “Will’s game for anything and went and put his name and age down.”

Will was up against 20 other youngsters but proved a natural, Leanne said, adding: “All the other children pretty much fell off as soon as they ran out of the pen, but Will was up and down the arena on the sheep.

“I think he was born to ride, I was astonished.”

“He said he was going to stay low down and wrap his arms around the sheep’s neck,” she said.

Will’s plan worked so well he eventually had to be pulled off the sheep by one of the rodeo clowns because he wasn’t budging.

“He probably got to around five minutes,” she said. “He took it all with a pinch of salt and came back and just said: ‘See, I told you I would win’.”

Amazed crowd members began asking Leanne about her son and where he was from and were shocked to discover he was on holiday and had never even ridden a horse or been near a sheep before.

“For an English boy to win it was unheard of, especially because where we were was not a tourist part,” she said.

Whiston Worrygoose pupil Will won a pair of cowboy boots and featured in the US town’s local paper, Llano News.

Will said: “I was holding on as tight as I could and I heard them saying, ‘three, two, one... release the beast’ and the gates opened and the sheep started running.

“We went right down the end of the arena, then I came right back up to the other end of the arena and started running around the sides.”

Will said he had been a “tiny bit” nervous but was quietly confident.

He added he previously had dreams of becoming a parkour, or free runner, but is now considering a career as a cowboy.