Bronc rider still has eye on Vegas
Flundra nurses knee injury
Dustin Flundra says anyone within $15,000 of the top 15 in professional rodeo’s world standings still has a chance to qualify for the year-ending Wrangler National Finals Rodeo at Las Vegas.
There are about 30 highpaying rodeos — starting this week with Dodge City, Kan., Great Falls, Mont., and Strathmore — left on the regular season schedule that wraps up at the end of September.
Flundra, a three-time Canadian saddle bronc riding champion, was at home near Pincher Creek on Wednesday afternoon.
He should have been in Dodge City.
“I’m adrift at sea,” he said. “I don’t know where I’m coming from or where I’m headed. I’m just floating aimlessly right now.”
Flundra is 25th in the rankings, about $11,000 outside the top 15. But, he’s hobbling around on a damaged right knee.
“I tore the meniscus and I have an MCL sprain,” reported the 31-year-old veteran. “The MCL isn’t the end of the world, but the meniscus is painful, causing swelling. The sports medicine people said if I was between 18 and 24 the meniscus could heal on its own. But, I’m way out of that age group and the chances of that happening are pretty slim.”
Flundra originally tweaked the knee at a rodeo in St. Paul, Ore., prior to the Calgary Stampede.
But, with time, it seemed to improve. Then he was bucked off awkwardly by a horse at Cheyenne, Wyo., last week and that’s when he tore the meniscus.
“I gave the horse entirely too much rein from start to finish,” he recalled. “When I bucked off, my leg was dragging across the saddle. The horse kicked again, bent my leg a little bit the wrong way and my knee made a big, loud pop. That was about the end of it. The Justin sportmedicine guys looked at it and gave me their diagnosis.”
Flundra has been rehabbing since and is due to see a rodeo sportmedicine team member today in Pincher Creek.
“Depending on what my progress and range of motion is, she’ll either send me to the University of Calgary for an MRI or tell me to keep on with her physiotherapy program.”
Flundra, who also had rodeos this week at High Prairie, Abbotsford, B.C., and Grimshaw on his itinerary, hopes to be able to ride in the closing performance at Strathmore on Monday of next week. He’s drawn a decent young Calgary bronc named Troll Mountain.
“That’ll be nine or 10 days off the knee,” he said. “If it was a ligament, there are ways to tape the knee. But, there’s no way they can tape for a meniscus. If I ride, I’ll have to bear a little pain.”
After two years plagued by assorted injuries, he’s been relatively healthy this season.
“I was picking away and things were shaping up pretty good,” said Flundra, No. 2 in the Canadian standings with a November playoff. CFR bound Bull rider Ty Pozzobon, who earned $6,316 on the home front last week, has clinched a berth at the November Canadian Finals Rodeo.
Like his Calgary Stampede champion travelling partner Chad Besplug, he’s also locked into the Professional Bull Riders world finals at Las Vegas and Canadian finals at Saskatoon. Slack starts early The Heritage Days rodeo at Strathmore has been knocked down to four days with Slack on Friday at 8:30 a.m., preceding the first public performance at 2 p.m.
The Saturday and Sunday performances go at 1 p.m. and the holiday closer on Monday starts at 11 a.m.