‘The golden rule is keep your eye on the bull, and I broke it’
Photographer, 73, pummelled during rodeo
WOOLWICH TOWNSHIP — A bull named Meat Hook bucked a rider and trotted around like it was proud until it saw Norm Betts standing in the ring and it charged.
Horrified spectators watched the bull pummel Betts, a 73-year-old rodeo photographer who never saw the beast coming.
It happened Friday in rural Woolwich Township at a charity fundraiser promoted as “the world’s most dangerous sport.” Betts remembers looking down at his camera but nothing after that. He’s recovering from two cracked ribs and a cracked sternum.
“The golden rule is keep your eye on the bull. And I broke it,” he said Monday from hospital. “It hurts.”
The pummelling, dramatic even by rodeo standards, stunned the crowd into silence.
“We had a front-row seat to Norm getting tossed around and we were very worried about him,” one spectator wrote on Facebook.
“So glad to hear that he is going to be okay … was shocking to watch!” Looked pretty terrible!” another spectator wrote.
Betts, of Toronto, is the longtime photographer for a rodeo tour that’s visiting southern Ontario communities through September. Friday’s two-hour rodeo was held at Calhoun Stables on Durant Road, between Maryhill and Bloomingdale. It was held in part to support Diabetes Canada.
The rodeo, named Ultimate Rodeo Tour or RAM Rodeo Tour, says it “features the most exciting rodeo events as seen on TV or at the Calgary Stampede, including barrel racing, bareback bronc riding, and the world’s most dangerous sport, bull riding!”
The bull smashed into Betts and mugged him on the ground before bull fighters distracted the animal.
“The bull just came and drilled him. It’s kind of like being hit by a little car,” said rodeo producer Ross Millar. He watched it happen. “Even our staff was extremely quiet. I got to be honest with you, we were feeling sick for our stomach, because we hadn’t seen it quite like that and we’ve been doing it 20 years.”
Medical staff got Betts out of the ring and stabilized him before an ambulance arrived to take him to Guelph General Hospital.
The rodeo continued in the meantime.
Four years ago, a bull tossed Betts into the air after he failed to get out of the way at the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. Now he’s thinking he’ll stay out of the ring when the bulls are in it even though the pictures are way better. His wife is leaning on him to be safer, after watching him get mauled.
He might still get into the ring with bucking horses. “The horses will try and not hit you,” he said.
Betts hopes to attend Saturday’s next rodeo in Simcoe, outside the ring. Millar says he’ll recommend a flak jacket and let Betts decide on his participation.
“I don’t like to see anybody hurt but that’s part of the game,” Millar said. “He fully understands the dangers involved.”