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“Carpal tunnel?” I asked the handsome, strapping Utah cowboy who had both wrists in a cast.
“Rodeo,” he said, “I bucked off.”
“Broncs? Bulls?”
“No, I rode my
saddlebronc.”
“Did ya win?” I asked.
“Placed third,” he said, “They paid two places.”
“Oww!” I said, “What happened to your arms?”
“Team roping,” he said with a trace of humiliation.
He related that he was a header, but he looked like a heeler to me.
Shawn’s story unfolded; he was ridin’ a horse he’d been tryin’ to break for six years. He’d been buck-free for 3 weeks. Out they shot from the roper’s box like three torpedoes and raced across the arena skimming the high spots.
Shawn reached out and roped the fast-running steer, turned hard to the left and looked back to see if his heeler was close behind. He was…and saw the whole show. Shawn’s horse exploded! To quote him exactly, not ‘broke in two’, ‘bogged his head’, or ‘blew up’…EXPLODED! He was caught off guard, leanin’ crooked in the saddle and lookin’ backwards. But he stayed dallied up based on the cowboy theory that “they can’t buck if they’re dragging
somethin’.” Wrong.
He blew a stirrup, noted the arena fence closing in, and his rope tied to the steer comin’ around the off side. When he pitched his slack, the horse felt free to really buck. Shawn said he bucked so hard he saw God.
Brigham Young was sitting beside Him! It renewed his faith. Brigham spoke to him and said, “Kid, this is gonna really hurt.”
Shawn was leaned out over the northeast quadrant (as you face the temple) when the horse came down front feet first. Our cowboy was fired into the ground like a javelin. The horse thundered on by.
Cowboys rushed to Shawn’s aid as he lay there like a drug runner’s Cessna nose-dived into a plowed field in south Florida. Shawn finally managed to stand and recover his Marlboro Man mystique.
“You hurt?” they asked.
“No, I’m fine.” he said.
“Look at your arms!” the crowd gasped.
Shawn said they curved up mid-forearm like a camel’s foot.
“Man,” I said, “What a wreck. Everything that could go wrong did!”
Shawn nodded his head and started to walk away, then turned and said, “Did I tell ya he stepped right square in the middle of my new hat?”
He hadn’t but it did explain the asymmetrical Teton Mountain Block and the corrugated edge of the brim.
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