Overpowered from excitement, I threw all of my gear into the hatch of an old SUV and crawled into the backseat. We drove 20 minutes to the Cowboy’s Arena in Seneca. Out of excitement, I jumped out of the backseat, popped the hatch and got my big blue bag of gear. I will never forget the ringing of my spurs as I walked into the office to register. I had the advantage because I knew so many riders, I knew exactly what rope and vest I wanted. The vest is a black and yellow one and the rope was blue. Everyone liked the blue rope because it was so easy to put rosin on. We got there about 2 and a half hours before my ride, so we watched the Jackpot Bulls. Jackpot bulls are the big rank PBR bulls. There was a lot of people in the crowd, I think there had to have been at least 200 people there just to watch, and probably 45 guys riding Jackpot. Whoever wins the Jackpot rides, gets half of the Jackpot entry money. For the guys riding jackpot it is $100 for the first bull and $45 for additional. Practice bulls are $20 for the first bull and $10 for additional. If there were 45 Jackpot riders only riding one bull, the winner would take home almost $2300. Riders would ride 2 or 3 bulls a piece. After announcing the winner for the jackpot, the practice bulls began. I was usually 2nd to last, and a lot of new riders were there, so I didn’t feel too bad. It was a special ride because I had a lot of people there to watch me. Brother, mom, dad, Fritz, Amanda, Jordan, and Lucas and his mom went. Getting lowered onto the bull was the best part. I was so nervous, and so excited at the same time. Nothing beats this feeling. You have time to think before you ride, and you definitely think. You have millions of thoughts going through your head at once, some good, but most bad. You also think after your ride, that thought is “Do it again!”. Bull riding is very addictive if you have the passion for it. But once you get tied onto that bull and you nod your head, all thoughts clear. 

When I rode my second bull, it was super warm out, I had the same feeling I did with my first bull, nervous and excited. When we got to the arena, I looked at the thermometer it said 80 degrees inside the car, after the AC. I drew a bull named Big Hippie. He was a black, mean, shaggy bull. Big Hippie spun, and bucked. He usually wasn’t a beginners bull, but the owner of the arena thought I could handle him.

This last bull that I rode, I got my hand tied on, but when I nodded my head, the gate keeper didn’t open the gate. When I stuck him with my spurs, he threw me over his head but the guy spotting me caught me before I got hurt worse than I did. In the process of going over his head, my knee got jammed in the bars of the gate and stayed there. I went to several different doctors in about a year and a half about it and every one of them said that it was just in my head and that nothing was actually wrong with it. I finally got an appointment with a very intelligent doctor and he referred me to a knee surgeon. I had seen the surgeon and two weeks later, I had surgery. In my surgery, they found that my knee cap was pretty much disconnected and I had little pieces of bones floating around in my knee.