Retired Bull Rider

I am a retired bull rider. I used to rodeo when I was younger. I started when I could ride in the little buckaroo rodeo's. Then as I got older I started to get more serious, and started to ride bulls and saddle broncs. I never could get good enough to stay riding saddle broncs though, besides they hurt every part of my body even when I didn't get thrown off. So I just stuck to riding bulls, I would hit all of the ammeter shows that I could. My Father bought some bulls to feed out and sell. So I would load them in a small truck that dad had, about 6 head at a time and haul them to the local rodeo arena in town, and buck them out, every night of the week except when I was at a rodeo. I never could get hold of enough money to join a rodeo school, so I had to learn all on my own. I finally got good enough to join the Rockey Mountain Rodeo Association (RMRA), a semi pro rodeo circuit. Then I would be at some rodeo every weekend all summer long. Through the winter months one of my friends would put together a string of bulls, and every Saturday he would put on a bull riding jackpot at an indoor arena. I started to finally learn to ride somewhat and not winning very much, but learning never the less. Then finally I got good enough to start to win, then I would get thinking that I was good. So sooner or later I would bite the dirt and find out that I was not all that good. I kept on riding though and learning more all of the time. And I started to win more and more. Finally I got good enough to win more than I was loosing so I thought. I was in third place in the standings in the RMRA, the last year that I competed. It was looking pretty good. I was a candidate to go to Gallop New Mexico, to compete with other semi pro circuits. Only the top three money winners were able to go compete. Then it happened, just what everyone said would happen, it is not if it happens but when and how bad you get hurt. I was at a show in Morgan Utah, I had my wife with me this time,and I had drawn a bull nobody liked, he was bad and not good enough to win any money on. I had to get on because to turn out was just unheard of by my standards. Well I got on and called for the gate, when we left the box all Hell broke loose, I ended up underneath him and this was not good, he stomped all over me. But I didn't think that I was hurt so we messed around till the rodeo was all over, then I drove about 100 miles to home. About the last 20 miles I started to hurt, I guess that the adrenalin must have been wearing off. We got home and I can't even remember going into the house. But my wife said that she helped me in and into bed. Well when I woke up I wasn't in my bed, I was at the hospital. I asked my wife where we were, she told me and I said that I didn't need to be there that I wasn't hurt. She made me stay until the Dr. came back with his results, and he said that I was bleeding internally, and he needed to find out where it was coming from. Well the bull had stepped all over my body and I had a perfect hoof print right over my spleen, so he didn't know if my spleen had been ruptured, that's when he told me that if my spleen had been ruptured that I would be dead by morning. So needless to say I decided to stay, at least long enough to find out. After they ran some more tests they found that my left kidney had been crushed, well this is not to serious so I thought. That's when the Dr. told me that I would have to stay in the hospital at least over night to be under constant observation. This was not good to hear. My nurse came in to check me every 15 minuets all through the night, And talk about ugly she looked like she had been ran over by a freight train. She came in and I looked at her, and she must have known what I thought, because she told me what had happened to her without my even asking. She told me that she also was a bull rider and that a bull had stepped right on her face and had crushed it, boy she was ugly. So then the next day around 4:00 in the afternoon I was thinking that I had been abandoned and that my wife had deserted me She finally arrived, then I told her to get my clothes and we were leaving, and she said that the Dr. had to come and release me. Finally he came in and said that he wanted me to stay another night. What another night? No way was I going to spend another night in here. I told my wife that I was leaving whether I was released or not. So that was when he made me promise that I would go home and stay in bed for a couple of more days, and not ride any bulls for at least 2 weeks, by now I was ready to promise anything, so I promised him that I would be a good boy and do as he asked. So we went home. I was already drew up in a show the following weekend and I had no intentions of missing it. So my wife and I went, and I had told her that I had to take my Dr.'s excuse so that I wouldn't have a turn out to my credit. All the time I was planning to get on. It was about a 150 mile drive, and it had me hurting pretty bad by the time that we got there. So then I decided not to get on, and went to the rodeo office and cleared it up so that I wouldn't turn out. Then as all things have to happen I continued in a downhill spiral till I was in 10th place. Some how I managed to stay in tenth place till the circuit finals in December, and made it in in the top 15, which is all that could compete. They had a two bull final, and I won one go around and fourth in the average, not to bad I guess. So I collected my winnings and went home. There wasn't enough winnings through the whole year to cover all of my expenses. This was not good, you can imagine what my wife had to say about it. Earlier on in the year I had quit my job as a carpenter, so I had to find a job. I landed a job driving long haul trucks, this would keep me away from home a week at a time, and there was no time for rodeo. So this did bring a end to my bull riding career, and I still wonder if I had been able to stay with it if I would have gotten good enough to make it on the pro rodeo circuit, and maybe on to the national finals, which is every cowboy's dream. Now you know why I am an retired bull rider.