Australian Champions, Now PBR Teams Rivals: The Leather Brothers’ American Ascent

From Queensland to America’s heartland, Macaulie and Boston Leather are making their mark one hard-earned ride at a time.

Macaulie Leather rides Blake Sharp / Hanks’s Fringe Minority for 91 during the second round of the Nashville PBR Team Series event. | Bull Stock Media

The Missouri Thunder have suddenly become the team to beat in PBR Teams, and much of the attention has been on Paulo Eduardo Rossetto, the unicorn ambidextrous rider whose record-setting 15-game riding streak turned him into the league’s poster cowboy for Johnny Morris’ overachieving team that hosts the season’s lone outdoor event.

But there is another Thunder rider quietly winning fans and respect as a difference-maker with big scores at opportune times, showcasing grit in the mold of the team’s rough-and-tumble Head Coach Ross Coleman and his smooth cowboy consigliere, the steadily resilient General Manager Luke Snyder.

That bull rider, Macaulie Leather, has become a home-run hitter in his own right. The 2023 PBR Australia Champion is 7 for 15 (46.67%) this season, with four 90-point rides and the league’s highest-marked score: a masterclass 93.35-point trip on King Tut in Anaheim, California, earlier this month.

Macaulie Leather | Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media

Leather is one of the five starters Missouri relies upon when a game needs a spark – or, when a difficult bull has to be met head-on.

“He’s our go-to guy to take on the challenge,” said Snyder, whose 275 consecutive event appearances stand as a career record that may never be broken. “Macaulie doesn’t ever let the highs get too high or the lows too low. He’s even-keeled and has a great presence in the locker room. He doesn’t say much. But when he talks, everyone listens.”

That description could equally apply to Macaulie’s younger brother, Boston. The brothers are low-key in a sport that can produce and certainly values oversized personalities and spectacular consequences. (See Lucas Divino’s jumping eyebrows and gut-wrenching wreck in Greensboro, North Carolina).

The Leathers are comfortable in letting other riders take part in the pregame interviews and goofy social media quizzes. They just keep showing up ready to take on the rankest bulls.

While they were both on the same Missouri squad last year, the brothers from Down Under are now contributing to rival teams in the middle of the United States.

Macaulie, 25, is helping lead the Missouri Thunder to a 16-7 record on top of the PBR Teams standings after eight events. Boston, 21, was recently signed by the Kansas City Outlaws as a free agent after recovering from a knee injury.

Debuting with Kansas City, he went 2-for-3 at Cowboy Days in Greensboro, helping the Outlaws (8-15) beat the Oklahoma Wildcatters and providing a much-needed boost to a banged-up team trying to climb the standings.

The next opportunity arrives this weekend at Rattler Days in Fort Worth, Texas, Oct. 2-4, the ninth event of the 12-event regular season heading toward the PBR Teams Championship at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nov. 6-8. 

While the brothers will be in opposing bucking chutes, they’ll be pulling for each other, as they have since they were children in Calliope, Queensland, a rural town near the coast of northeastern Australia.

“It’s bloody great,” Macaulie said. “To now have (Boston) healthy and at our events and riding good is great to see.”

Their story begins with a family so large that at a bull riding event, they’d more resemble a crowd than a team. There are eight girls and five boys among the siblings. Macaulie is second oldest of the 13; Boston is fifth. Their oldest brother rode first, then gave it up after having a child. Their youngest brother, Raglin, is 12 and gets on whenever he can. Their sisters favor barrel racing.

Their father grew up in town, playing soccer and cricket. Bull riding entered the family after they moved to Calliope, where a local show offered a small calf ride. Macaulie watched oldest brother Elijiah climb aboard, decided it looked like the greatest thing ever and took his turn. The brothers began traveling to local events. Nobody planned it, but an afternoon’s curiosity turned into a way of life.

Boston was more reluctant. “They just threw me on,” he said. “Did I have a knack for it? Definitely not. At the start, I couldn’t ride anything.”

Around 16, he began getting on bigger bulls and working seriously at the craft. He won the 2024 PBR Australia Championship and Rookie of the Year title on the same weekend, completing the nation’s first back-to-back title run by siblings after Macaulie was the top rider in Australia in 2023.

The transition to the United States has required more than a passport and work visa. Boston said the bulls in America are generally faster and more athletic, while many Australian bulls are bigger, heavier and slower. The weather has been another adjustment.

“It’s pretty hot here,” he said.

Boston Leather and Ross Coleman | Bull Stock Media

His brother has made adapting to life in America easier for him, as have familiar Queensland faces such as Brady Fielder, the ever-steady leadoff man for the Rattlers. Boston lives in Henrietta, Texas, halfway around the world from the arenas back home but chasing the same adrenaline rush from the craziest eight seconds imaginable.

For the Kansas City Outlaws, Boston’s arrival is rooted in necessity. Injuries forced General Manager Jon Williams and Head Coach J.W. Hart to look for a rider who could contribute immediately. Boston had been performing well on the PBR Velocity and Challenger tours, quietly building the case for another shot in Teams.

“With our injuries, we decided we needed somebody like Boston,” Williams said. “What we always try to look for in riders is the toughness – physical and mental. You watch video of his rides, and you can see that.”

Williams jokes that Boston’s first weekend in North Carolina made him and Hart seem like geniuses. On the opening night of Cowboy Days, he scored 86.15 points on Snake Eyes to help the Outlaws beat Arizona, snapping a seven-game losing streak. On Sunday, he added 83.45 points on Tijuana Two Step to clinch a win over Oklahoma.

Boston Leather rides Tijuana Two-Step for 83.45 | Bull Stock Media

“I just sort of kept quiet and did my job,” Boston said of his time on the Challenger circuit. “(Back in Teams) it helps when the coaches create the rider-bull matchups and put you on the right bulls.”

That is the central difference between PBR Teams and the individual competition that shaped the brothers early in their respective careers. The team format gives riders teammates, coaching, and a shared locker room. The sport’s most courageous and physically overmatched athletes are no longer riding only for themselves.

Macaulie has embraced that collective pressure in Missouri, where Coleman and Snyder match him with some of the league’s most demanding bulls. Snyder said Macaulie can handle either direction as a starter despite being a left-hand-down rider, and the Thunder have increasingly used him in the No. 4 spot as a setup man before Maverick Smith closes the game.

“This year, Macaulie has really stepped up, and we started feeding him some of the harder bulls,” Snyder said. “There’s always one heavy hitter each game.”

Macaulie knows he can knock down big rides but didn’t expect to have the season’s high mark with 93.35 points on King Tut.

“I know I’m more than capable to get on a bull like King Tut and get a 93, but that was still a bit of an eye opener,” he said. “That was never something I thought about.”

Macaulie Leather rides Less Than 8 Cattle Co.'s King Tut for 93.35 | Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media

His approach to the Thunder mirrors the way he handles a bull: prepare, commit and do not waste energy on what cannot be changed, something he’s learned from the intense and demanding Coleman. Macaulie says he’s more laid-back, closer in temperament to Snyder. But the contrast with his head coach has become useful.

He watches Coleman closely, even when the advice is directed toward another rider. He remembers a recent moment when a teammate had a mix-up in the chutes, the clock ran down and the rider was disqualified. Coleman, who might normally have reacted with anger, took a breath.

“It was over and done with,” Macaulie said. “It’s gone, and it’s happened, and we move forward.”

That mindset of pushing ahead – even when in pain – seems to be through line for Australians now competing in America. Troy Dunn, the only Australian to win the PBR World Championship, captured the 1998 title despite being carried from the arena after dislocating his hip in the first round of the World Finals. His season-long lead was large enough to clinch the championship.

Soft-spoken Fielder, a two-time PBR Teams MVP runner-up and 2023 champion with the Texas Rattlers, carries a modern version of that grit. After a wreck at 16 left him blind in one eye, the Clermont, Queensland, native continued from the Australian ranch circuit to become one of the sport’s most consistent riders. In 2025, at the PBR Last Cowboy Standing he fractured his leg but still climbed back into the chutes for three more rides. After recovering, he came back to finish runner-up in the PBR Teams MVP race.

Another cowboy from Queensland, Callum Miller of the Austin Gamblers, has made a career out of refusing to let go. Miller is known for hanging on until he is upside down, backward and nearly inside out. During the 2026 Unleash The Beast season, he returned two weeks after breaking his jaw, his mouth wired shut.

Callum Miller attempts to ride Blake Sharp / Hanks’ High Road during Day 3 of the 2026 PBR Teams Event in Austin. | Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media

The injuries and personalities are different. The underlying commitment to keep hanging on when it may get you hung up and stomped is not. Miller’s belief that introspection versus rage is the foundation for succeeding in a collision sport where the human athlete is dwarfed by an unpredictable bovine is a useful philosophy. Rides will inevitably go badly. An athlete must clear his mind and start fresh, or it can get twice as ugly next time.

The Leathers do not advertise their toughness. Boston talks about being happy to be healthy and getting on good bulls. Macaulie talks about doing the mid-week work, so that riding on the weekend becomes easier and more fun. Neither brother sounds interested in making a speech about overcoming adversity.

Their preparation is practical, especially in getting the reps on the faster, more athletic American bulls. The Thunder train and practice together every week. Macaulie goes to the gym three or four days a week, working on mobility and stability with water weights – the heavy, sloshing water mimicking an 1,800-pound animal trying to throw him around.

Missouri’s success has come as Brazilian, American and Australian riders functioning as one team. “It’s not like the Brazilians are on one side of the locker room and the Americans on the other. We’re all together and we try to understand one another,” Macaulie said.

Yet everyone maintains their identity, keeping the perspective of being fortunate to pursue their dream in what is still a game.

“Bull riding doesn’t define who we are,” he said.

Missouri Thunder | Andy Watson/Bull Stock Media

That perspective may help explain why the Thunder are leading the league – and why the Leather brothers, particularly Macaulie, are such an integral part of the story of the 2026 PBR Teams season. They’re riding not for personal highlights but something larger, pushing for team success more than personal stats, while realizing that falling off their bulls is not the end of the world. What’s done is done. Tomorrow is a fresh slate.

At Rattler Days, Macaulie will try to keep the Thunder on top. Boston will try to help the Outlaws climb. They will meet in the third game on Sunday afternoon. The brothers will compete as rivals, but eleven siblings back in Australia know they’ll be cheering for one another inside the bucking chutes.

“Once the last weekend’s done, you look ahead,” Macaulie said. “It’s just the next bull that matters.”

For the Leather brothers, the next bull has been waiting since Calliope. The only thing that has changed is how far they’ve traveled to dance with him and how big the score can be.