Bumps, bruises or worse, ‘that’s part of bull riding’
Lockwood recovers after nasty fall to earn spot in Showdown Sunday
Jess Lockwood survived a scary incident in the feature event at the Calgary Stampede rodeo on Sunday.
So he was happy to hear that a fellow bull rider is getting some support after suffering a compound fracture of his right leg July 5 at the Ranchman’s Renegades Charity Bullbustin’ event.
Josh Faircloth, of Randleman, N.C., was rushed to hospital after being thrown off a bull named Fire Nails at the annual Ranchman’s event and underwent emergency surgery.
Because the injury will significantly impact Faircloth’s ability to not only do what he loves to do, but also take care of his family, Stacey Meyer spearheaded a GoFundMe campaign (www.gofundme.com/ josh-faircloth-bull-rider-relief) to support him.
“It’s probably going to put a pretty good wrinkle in his rodeoing for sure,” said Meyer, who helps Cody Snyder put on the Ranchman’s event each year.
The goal of the campaign is to raise enough funds to cover Faircloth’s hospital bills and send him home to North Carolina.
“Whenever you get hurt, you want people to help out, for sure,” said Lock wood, who was impressed that the campaign had raised more than $1,200 in just one day. “That’s nice to see and hear.”
Although Lockwood racked up three first-place showings over four days in the bull-riding event at the Stampede, he was bucked off a bull named Gambler on Sunday.
“I kind of got off the side of that bull and my hand popped out, but I had the tail of my rope wrapped around my hand and it drove me right underneath him and he stepped on my arm pretty good and both my legs,” said Lockwood, of Volberg, Mont., who rebounded on Monday with a spectacular 90.5-point ride aboard Blue Stone. “I’m a little bit sore, but that’s part of bull riding.”
Brett Mon ea was one of three bullfighters who came to Lock wood’ s rescue and even got tossed up in the air by Gambler in the process.
“He was all right,” said Monea of Lockwood. “I guess he’s got kind of a sore elbow and a groin that’s a little sore, but when you’re getting on 1,800-pound bulls, you’re bound to get a little sore once in a while.”
Lockwood gave the trio of bullfighters credit for jumping in harm’s way and making sure that Gambler didn’t do any more damage.
“They did a really good job — as good as they could,” said Lockwood, who finished with $16,500 in earnings over four days to top the Pool A standings and automatically earn a Showdown Sunday spot.
Monea was also on the spot when Faircloth was tossed to the ground and he did his best to make sure the situation didn’t worsen.
“That’s all we can do is do the best that we can to prevent the injury,” said Monea. “Sometimes injuries still happen. If I know I was doing the job to the best of my ability and if they still get hurt, I can live with that.”
He was also happy to hear about the GoFundMe campaign to support Faircloth.
“Wow,” he exclaimed. “When one of us gets hurt, we kind of pool together to help out in whatever way we can.”
Monea’s no stranger to sustaining injuries, including one that kept him from plying his trade at the Stampede last year.
“I ended up breaking my leg at the Petroleum Show in June here in Calgary at the Agrium Centre,” said Monea, who has been able to stay injury free this season. “It’s great to be back. It’s awesome.”
Bull rider Dakota Buttar also had a rough ride from a bull named Wyoming Storm on the first day of the Stampede on Friday.
“The bull stepped on my neck and poked a little hole in my lung,” recalled the cowboy from Kindersley, Sask., who’s going to take some time off to heal several nagging injuries. “It’ll be about 10 days for the little hole to heal. I’ll probably take a month off and let everything heal up good and then come back.”
Buttar also sent out his well wishes to Faircloth on his road to recovery.
“If you’re not riding, you can’t be making any money, so it makes it harder on a guy to get going again when you’ve got no money,” he said.
In addition to Lockwood, Ryan Dirteater, Joao Ricardo Vieira and Garrett Smith qualified from Pool A to go straight through to Showdown Sunday.
Dirteater, of Hulbert, Okla., finished second behind Lockwood with $14,000 in earnings, while Vieira of Sao Paulo, Brazil, ($11,500) and Smith of Rexburg, Idaho, ($10,000) also finished in the top four.