Mauney to have surgery after big fall
North Carolina bull-riding star facing shoulder surgery after Friday’s wreck
The last time J.B. Mauney was seen at the Calgary Stampede was Friday’s terrifying wreck that saw the 30-year-old being loaded onto a stretcher, into an ambulance and taken to the hospital.
But miraculously, Mauney — one of the most technical and talented bull riders in the world — was upright and in a sling Sunday, watching the championship finals from behind the chutes.
“It looked a lot worse than it really was,” the Statesville, N.C., native said shortly after the first round of bull riding in the richest day in rodeo. “I’ve been knocked out a lot, but I always get up and walk out. They said I was trying to get up when they got to me. Unfortunately, my right arm was not moving and I couldn’t quite get myself up off the ground. Before I knew what was going on, they had me strapped to that backboard.”
After staying on for the full eight seconds aboard a Corey and Horst bull named Cowahbunga, Mauney was bucked off and fell underneath the bull, appearing to hit his head on the ground while also being stepped on.
The ride scored 90.5 on the final day of Pool B action, qualifying him for Sunday’s final with $15,000 in the aggregate, but that was hardly the concern of anyone who was watching Friday’s action.
“That bull was bucking pretty hard,” Mauney recalled.
“I remember everything. He had some moves to him and was fading a bit with me, but he kind of got me on the inside and I was way too far over his head. When I tried to sit down and get my hips back under me, he rocked me outside.
“When the whistle blew, I knew I was getting ready to hang to him because my hands didn’t come out of that rope.
“Unfortunately when I did, my rope slid across his back and put me right underneath him and he just stomped on me. He caught me under my left armpit and slammed me on the ground. I was just out.”
For a few terrifying moments, Mauney was not moving, which gave onlookers a bit of a scare. In the sport of bull riding, wrecks happen from time to time, but this one looked to be serious.
Especially considering Mauney, a two-time Stampede champion and flashy PBR athlete, is as tough as they come.
But he started moving his fingers and Dr. Ralph Strother, the on-site Canadian Professional Rodeo Sport Medicine doctor, was able to report that Mauney was coherent, stable, talking, alert and recognized his wife Samantha Lyne.
“I knew my shoulder was out,” he explained. “I told them when they picked me up that my shoulder was out and they popped that back in before they sent me to the hospital and wanted to get X-rays.
“They said it was broke. And I was like, ‘OK, well they can screw that back down and I’ll be back (for the finals).’ The MRIs came back and it was a lot worse than what I was hoping.”
Mauney said that it was the fall that did the most damage rather than the actual moment the bull stepped on him.
“All I did to my left arm was tear it all up, (the bull) pretty much scraped it all to hell,” he said.
“It was fine. But the other one, not so much. It was probably the way I had my arm stuck out and him just slamming me on the ground and just popped it out.”
For obvious reasons, he was unable to ride on Sunday and Longview’s Brock Radford was given his spot.
However, if Mauney could have competed, there’s no question he would have.
“They’re going to have to re-attach a bunch of stuff in my shoulder,” said Mauney, who’ll fly home to North Carolina and undergo surgery on Tuesday.
“I broke the ball in my shoulder, tore my bicep tendon, tore another muscle on the backside, tore the capsule in it. I told the doctors, ‘Good luck putting that puzzle back together.’ ” He chuckled. “But that’s bull riding and the way it goes ... when you’ve been riding bulls as long as I have, you get used to it. It’s going to happen, everybody knows that. It wouldn’t have been the exact time I’d like for it to happen, but you’re going to get hurt and that’s all part of it.”
I told the doctors, ‘Good luck putting that puzzle back together.’ But that’s bull riding and the way it goes ...