Champion Bull rider J.B. Mauney, from Stephenville, Tex., in the Cowboy Dressing Room at the Calgary Stampede on July 13. Mr. Mauney is competing with a broken left leg.Leah Hennel/The Globe and Mail
J.B. Mauney, one of the world’s greatest bull riders, did something at the Calgary Stampede that he hasn’t done in a decade.
A bull named Sky Fall bested Mr. Mauney in his first go-round at the 2023 rodeo, bucking him off just before the clock hit eight seconds. That’s nothing new. But rather than landing on his head or a shoulder or any other awkward position, Mr. Mauney landed on his feet. And it hurt.
“I had heartbeats in my damn toes when I got back here,” he recounted Friday in the dressing room for rodeo contestants at the Stampede. “It was purely an accident. I never land on my feet.”
Mr. Mauney is competing with a broken leg, something that is old hat for this cowboy. Most recently, Viper, a 952-kilogram bull, stomped on his left leg, breaking his fibula. He said his initial X-ray failed to detect the break; it wasn’t discovered until he went to urgent care a couple weeks later with the limb infected.
Krista Carlyle-Burton, of Canadian pro-rodeo sport medicine, prepares Champion Bull rider J.B. Mauney’s broken leg before he competes at the Calgary Stampede Rodeo.Leah Hennel/The Globe and Mail
He ditched his air boot to compete in Calgary on Thursday. On Friday, he hobbled around the bowels of the infield without the boot. Landing upright on a busted leg hurt, but Mr. Mauney eschews pharmaceutical relief.
“Adrenaline is the best pain killer ever,” he said. “You feel it when it wears off.”
J.B. Mauney, who is competing with a broken left leg, takes a moment in the cowboy dressing room at the Calgary Stampede on July 13.Leah Hennel/The Globe and Mail
Cowboys and cowgirls, like other professional athletes, are known for competing even when their bodies are bruised and broken. But Mr. Mauney, the top all-time money-earner on the PBR bull-riding circuit, takes the stereotype further than most. He rode bulls despite a break in his other leg years ago. When he broke his left hand – the one he uses to hang on when the animals are trying to free themselves of their passengers – he temporarily became a right-handed bull rider. Now there’s a plate in his left hand and his pinkie finger is permanently bent under.
Creek Young, a 22-year-old bull rider from Springfield, Missouri, broke his fibula once and opted to stay on the sidelines while it healed. But he’s not surprised Mr. Mauney, 36, rides rather than recuperates.
“That’s kind of what we expect of him,” Mr. Young, who won top day money Thursday with a score of 88, said in the dressing room. “He’s definitely an idol. I was a huge fan growing up.”
Professional rodeo contestants tour the continent, vying for recognition from sponsors and enough in cash prizes to qualify for bigger competitions, like the National Finals Rodeo. The Calgary Stampede is one of the world’s most famous – and richest – rodeos, even though the champions’ cheques were chopped in 2021 to $50,000 from $100,000.
Mr. Mauney, who is from Texas by way of North Carolina, won the Calgary Stampede in 2009 and 2013.
Seth Saulteaux rides a bull during the 2019 Red Pheasant Rodeo in Red Pheasant, Sask. Saulteaux, heralded as a promising star on the Indigenous rodeo circuit, died at a competition in southern Alberta earlier this month.Liz Fox Photography via THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout
Bull riding can be a wildly dangerous sport.
Seth Saulteaux, a 19-year-old bull rider from around Maskwacis, Alta., died after suffering a traumatic injury to his head at an Indian National Finals Rodeo qualifier in southern Alberta earlier this month. Ty Pozzobon, a Canadian bull rider, died by suicide in 2017 after a string of concussions. He became the sport’s first confirmed case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
Krista Carlyle-Burton, a certified athletic therapist with Canadian Pro Rodeo Sport Medicine, fitted Mr. Mauney with a malleable splint Friday afternoon.
“It’s arts and crafts day,” she said as she glued a layer of foam to the inside of the moulded splint. The soft layer is designed to deflect any force, especially if Mr. Mauney lands on his feet again.
Bad to the Bone played at the rodeo as Mr. Mauney got ready to ride Friday afternoon. Vertigo Spy bucked him off in about four seconds. He landed on his back, crawled in the dirt for a bit, and limped out of the ring.
Champion Bull rider J.B. Mauney, from Stephenville, Tex., rides Sky Fall with a broken left leg at the Calgary Stampede Rodeo on July 13. He was bucked off.Leah Hennel/The Globe and Mail