After breaking my back I'm unsure about my future as a Rodeo Cowboy.
THE RIDE
We rolled into the rodeo grounds in a cloud of dust on a bright sunny Saturday morning. That car of Marilee’s can fly and she knows how to drive it. We left Central Oregon at 7:30 this morning and pulled into Heppner Oregon, 180 miles down the road a little before 11:00 A.M.
Marilee pulled around behind the bucking chutes to the rodeo office so I could pay my entry fees and see if the list of riders was posted. It was and I wasn’t on the list for today but several of my friends were up to ride this afternoon.
We decided to find a couple of motel rooms and freshen up since the rodeo didn’t start until 1:00 P.M.. There was a motel three blocks from the rodeo grounds so that’s where we headed. It wasn’t the Hilton but it was priced right since I was paying for both rooms. My pickup was in the shop so Marilee and her girlfriend had offered to bring me to the rodeo if I would pay their expenses. We lucked out and got the last two rooms in town.
At the rodeo grounds I ran into a couple of boys who had been to the Moses Lake rodeo last weekend. They said, “It was a tough show. It rained two out of the three days, and the arena was a mud hole.Tthe horses didn’t buck worth a damn. Johnnie Rawlins broke his arm when he came off a bareback horse on Sunday. He said that the horse stepped on him but we all saw it. He just fell wrong. They had one hell of a dance though. Jim Bob Thompson got thrown in jail for hitting a cop outside the dance hall.”
“Well, boys I’m sorry to hear you had such a bad time. At least it wasn’t as bad as Pendleton when you all got thrown in jail because some young fellow shot the flashing light off the roof at the all-night restaurant. I couldn’t believe you came in to the restaurant and ordered breakfast after doing that. It was quite a show when the Pendleton cops came marching in and arrested the bunch of you and hauled you off to jail.”
Bob Morrison came walking up, “It was a good thing those girls over at the Silver Saddle bar came and paid your bail or you’d still be in jail.”
“No, that’s not true ,” I said. “The boys and I who were staying up at the Hotel De Cowboy were pooling our money. We may not have got you all out, but we’d got one or two.”
“Maybe this show will treat you better. At least there isn’t any rain in the forecast.” Bob said.
“By the way, what do you guys know about this contractor who’s furnishing the livestock,” I ask?
Bob said “He’s got pretty good steers and calves for roping but he’s shy on bucking stock. I heard he borrowed some bulls from Sonny Thurber to fill his roster for this show.”
“Well I didn’t make the book on bulls but I’m up for bareback tomorrow,” I said.
Billy Joe made the comment “I haven’t ridden any of his stock. He got started this spring. I think this is his fourth show of the year. He did the show at Wasco and he furnished some of the stock at the Tygh Valley All Indian rodeo.
I spotted Marilee and Terry cornered at the beer stand by some old want-a-be or never has been, so I rescued them and we headed for the stands to watch the show. I commented that I liked the looks of their boy friend back there.
They started laughing and told me how he won the All - Around at The Pendleton Round-up 2 years in a row. He also won the All - Around at Calgary last year. He rides Barebacks, Broncs, and Bulls, plus he is a World Champion bulldogger, a team roper and calf roper. “There’s nothing I like better than a man who can do it all,” Marilee laughed as she climbed up into the stands.
The first event after the Grand Entry and The National Anthem is the bareback riding. They bring the horses into the chutes during the Grand Entry.The cowboys are rigged up and ready to ride as soon as the National Anthem comes to a close.
The first guy coming out on his horse bucked off right outside the gate.
The second guy missed his horse coming out of the chute. I should explain on the first leap out of the gate your spurs have to be touching the points of the horse’s shoulders or else you’re disqualified. It’s referred to as missing him out.
The third and fourth horses were ridden with the riders scoring a 60 and a 64 consecutively.
They were having trouble with the fifth horse. He’s fighting in the chute. A rider likes his horse to be square under him as he comes out the gate. If the horse is leaning against the gate or fence the cowboy will get off and try to reposition the animal. Sometimes the horse will try to lay down in the chute. The number 5 horse, which the program states its name as Nicotine was kicking, rearing up, and biting at the rider and the chute help.
They bypassed the 5th chute and went to number 6 who bucked off. Number 7 rode his horse with a score of 61. Number 8 was a miss out and disqualified.
So the only one left is number five and it’s looking like an easy payday for me tomorrow if I get a horse with any kind of buck to him at all. I can make an average bucking horse seem a lot better than he really is by bouncing around on his back and thrill the crowd with a little wild riding.
The announcer called for the gate on chute number 5 and out bolted a race horse. He was flying for three jumps. Then he set the brakes and jumped backward. As he flew backward he flung himself sideways with his feet parallel to the ground. I thought they were going down in a crash but at the last second he came down to earth with his hind legs under him. He pushed upward and leaped for the sky. When he reached the top of his jump he kept on going right over backwards like a back flip. At that point the rider let go and jumped. The horse never noticed the rider was gone. He went right on bucking and throwing himself around. The pickup men couldn’t get close to the horse to release the bucking strap because of the way the horse was throwing himself around. He kicked and squealed like a demon possessed. I expected the horse to break a leg from the way it was bucking. This is what they call a widow maker. This is a dangerous horse and he will kill someone.
I turned to Marilee, “That’s the horse I’ll draw tomorrow.”
Marilee just looked at me like I was nuts “Yeah right! They don’t buck horses two days in a row.”
“It may be because he’s short of stock, but this contractor will buck him tomorrow. I’m telling you that’s the horse I’m going to draw tomorrow.
One of the guys asks me if I had become a psychic while I was on the injured list with my broken back.
“No, but that will be the horse I draw tomorrow just as sure as I’m setting here with you now.”
Billy Jack laughed, “He’s not psychic he’s psychotic.”
I don’t know why but that horse freaked me out. Maybe it’s because I’m just coming off the injured list. I broke a vertebra in my upper back at the end of the season last December. This is my first rodeo since the doctor released me. I’m concerned as to whether my back will hold up to a horse like that. The doctors parting words had been to stay out of wrecks. I really don’t need to get broke up again.The next time it could put an end to my rodeo career. The more I think about it, I’m sure that Nicotine is going to be my horse tomorrow.
I can turn him out and refuse to ride him, but they don’t like it when you do that. They’ll make me pay a fine for turning the horse out without a good reason. Actually my pride won’t let me turn the horse out. In all the years I’ve been rodeoing I’ve ridden the rough stock with broken arms, legs, ribs, even a broken sternum. With enough bandages and tape you can do about anything. The best thing I can do is figure out how to use the horse’s craziness to my advantage.
After the rodeo everybody came back to our motel rooms to hang out, drink beer and kick back while we waited for the rodeo dance to start. People kept coming and going at intervals and it was hard to tell who was supposed to be there and who wasn’t. Some of the people I knew. They hadn’t seen me since I had gotten hurt so they came over to say hi. There were others I’ve no idea who they were. I admit I’m not a very good host. All I can think about is that crazy horse and how he bucked.
Finally someone decided it was time for dinner. Marilee knocked on my door and asks if I wanted to go with her and Terry.
“No, go on, I need to think and I’m not hungry.”
“You need to eat something. Do you want me to bring you back a burger or a sandwich?”
“No, but thanks. If I get hungry I’ll go down to the restaurant later.”
Now for some peace and quiet. Maybe I can figure out how to ride that horse. Every time I close my eyes I see that horse throwing himself around. I hear the squealing and braying as he bucked.
Normally if the contractor bucks a horse on Saturday he won’t buck it the next day. However this contractor is shy of bucking stock so he will double up on the animals that didn’t get rode Saturday. He’ll buck them out again on Sunday.
All through the evening people came and went from my room. I remember Marilee coming over to see if I was going to the dance. I told her maybe later.
During the evening Terry came by and asked if I needed company. I told her no, that I was working on a problem and I needed to think. I know I hurt some peoples feeling tonight but that damn horse won’t leave me alone.
6:00 A.M. and I’m up and dressed. The population of my room grew overnight and the snoring would wake the dead. I need a place where I can think without being disturbed. There are at least 8 extra people asleep on the other bed and in chairs around the room. There are two people stretched out in the middle of the floor. It’s a typical rodeo room. Some of these guys are so cheap they would sleep in the back of my pickup rather than pay out money for a motel room. Others are down on their luck and looking for a place out of the weather.
I decide to go over to the rodeo grounds to see if anything is going on. As I pass by the rodeo office I see the day’s roster is posted on the door. In less than the blink of an eye I see my name and next to it the horse Nicotine in chute #3. I feel sick to my stomach. I look around for a place to throw up but there are to many campers and sleeping bags around.
I head over to the bleachers to sit down. The cleaning crew is picking up trash in and under the bleachers. There’s a water truck working the arena. He’s spraying water and pulling a harrow-bed behind the truck to turn the soil. He drives in circles around and around until he’s worked the entire arena. It’s like my mind, going round and around mulling over that infernal horse.
I’ve been setting here over an hour when I hear someone call my name. I look up and see Marilee coming through the bleachers. She has a cup of coffee in each hand. She hands me one and sits down. “Are you ok?” she asks.
“Yeah I guess so. Did you see the roster?”
“Yes, I can’t believe you drew that horse. What are you going to do?”
“The only thing I can do is ride it and hope for the best. If I get him to buck the first jump out of the chute instead of running several steps it might break his rhythm enough I can do something with him. If I get him to buck in a circle by working him on the right side high on his neck with my spur I might keep him off balance for 8 seconds. It will take some serious leg work but it might work.”
“Well now that you’ve figured that out, how about you let me buy you breakfast cowboy, since you haven’t eaten since breakfast yesterday.”
I laughed and said, “Ok, you talked me into it.”
On the way down to the restaurant we picked up a couple of the boys who were walking. “Hey I hope you don’t mind me crashing in your room last night,” Jerry Lee said.
“It was ok I didn’t even know you were there until I got up this morning. It must have been one hell of a dance because half the cowboys in town were camped out in my room.”
“Well you did bring the best looking women with you. What do you expect,” Marilee said. “As for the dance it was ok. But Cooper got into it with the local football hero over some little blonde, things went south after that. The football team was demanding justice and the local John Law finally shut the dance down about 11:30. Everybody behaved pretty well considering they were half drunk. That’s why everyone showed up at our motel.”
Jerry Lee said “They had a poker game going in my room and some of the guys were playing cribbage too, so I came over to your room to get some sleep. You were dead to the world. I checked on you several times just to see if you were still breathing.”
After breakfast Marilee ran me by the motel so I could get a shower and change my clothes. After the shower I feel better so I head down to the rodeo grounds.
I get to the arena I see the water truck is stopped right in front of chute 3. The driver is talking to a guy and letting the water run. That’s all I need, a mud hole right where Nicotine sets himself to suck back like he did yesterday. I don’t have a choice now I’ve got to make the horse buck right in the chute.
It’s finally time for the Grand Entry and I’m sweating bullets. I’ve been riding and reriding that horse over and over in my head all morning. In my head I spur him to make him dance to my tune.. It’s called ‘The Power of Positive Thinking’. The theory is if you do something enough times in your head your body will react automatically when the time comes for you to actually do it.
The horses are in the chutes and Nicotine is acting par for the course. He’s trying to bite R.J. Jordan while R.J. is holding Nicotine’s head. Nicotine is kicking and jumping around in the chute like he’s standing on an ant hill. I finally get the bareback rigging around him and I try to get it cinched up but he keeps jumping and bouncing from the front to the back in the chute. I ‘m standing above the horse trying to get my rigging set into place while Gib Miller is trying to pulling the cinch tight for me. The chute boss is setting the bucking strap around Nicotine’s flank and R.J. is holding the horse’s head. It’s like doing the waltz, three steps forward, three steps back, as we work side by side trying to get everything set as Nicotine moves back and forth in the chute. I finally get my rigging set where I want it and now all I have to do is wait for my turn.
The first rider rides his horse and scored a 71 which put him in first place. The second rider bucked off and gets a round of applause for his effort.
Finally it’s my turn. I sit down on the horse gently so I don’t spook him. R.J. has him by the head and the chute boss is yelling to get a move on. I pull my gloved hand into the rigging. It looks like a large handle and it is the only thing I have to hang on to the horse with. I’m right handed so I use my left hand to hold on and my right hand is over my head as a balancing rod. I lay my head down on the horse’s rump and pulled my crotch into my left hand so I am sitting on top off my hand. I place my feet up on the top rail of the chute and grab the fence with my right hand to hold myself steady. With my feet up on top of the rail I should have enough downward momentum with my spurs to make him buck when the gate opens. I don’t dare miss him out or it will blow everything.
The chute boss is yelling to get out of the chute or get off. Sometimes I’d like to punch him in the mouth to shut him up. I know he is doing his job trying to keep the show running smoothly but it’s my neck on the line.
I look up at R.J. and yell “let’s have him.” The gate swings open, my feet come down off the rails and nail him right on the points of his shoulders. Nicotine lets out a squeal and explodes right in the chute. So far so good, but then everything goes wrong! I can’t get my balance! I’m hanging to far over on my right side. I try to pull myself back up on top of the horse. I can’t get back to the center of the horse. My timing is off and I can’t catch the rhythm of his jumps. I hit the ground.
I lay there in the dirt trying to get my head straight on what just happened. I can move my legs and arms. I didn’t have any excruciating pain except in my upper arms and shoulders.
On some of the bigger horses they will leave the chute so fast they literally rip your hand out of the rigging. This horse wasn’t that big. He jerked me around like he was though. Both arms feel like they’ve dragging on the ground.
I got up and walked back to the chutes I looked up at Gib and R.J. They were laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes.
” What the hell happened with that horse? There is no way that horse could have been that stout.”
They burst out laughing all over again. Gib was holding his sides like he was about to bust a gut and R.J. was hanging over the railing gasping for air.
“Look if one of you doesn’t tell me what happened I’m going to come up there and throw you both off the chutes.”
R.J. looked at me and wiped his eyes, “You were so psyched up. All you could think about was getting that horse to buck. When you called for him and he jumped out of the chute and you nailed him on the shoulders with your spurs. Boy oh boy did he pop!” R.J. had to grab hold of the chute to keep from falling off as he doubled over with laughter again.
Gib continued “The only mistake you made is you forgot to let go of the fence with your right hand. That horse stretched you out like a clothesline, TWANG!” And the laughter started all over again.
The more I thought about it, it was pretty funny. People say if I can’t ride the horse I always know how to thrill the crowd.
The main thing was I came through it without a scratch. I know I will be sore for a few days but all my body parts are working. After all what cowboy doesn’t have a few aches and pains now and again? That’s part of the rodeo life style, so what am I waiting for, my truck should be fixed and ready to go when I get back to Central Oregon and there’s a rodeo coming up in Evanston Wyoming next weekend.
THE END
That was quite a ride! More about rodeo than I ever knew before. After all the buildup I thought that you would conquer Nicotine and end up winning the top bucking horse prize instead of getting stretched out at the gate.
This book tells the story of the 1999 Providence College Friars baseball team, the last season that the sport was played at the institution. Baseball was set to be eliminated after that season in order for the school to comply with Title IX regulatio
"HOMEGROWN: The Making of the 1972-73 Providence College Friars" is a retrospective of that remarkable season as well as a history of the school's basketball program, which was responsible for drawing the local talent that propelled that team to succ
"HOMEGROWN: The Making of the 1972-73 Providence College Friars" is a retrospective of that remarkable season as well as a history of the school's basketball program, which was responsible for drawing the local talent that propelled that team to succ
