Rodeo’s Cowboys Didn’t Exactly Take Bull by the Horns

Saturday afternoon was no ride in the country for the cowboys competing at the 23rd annual Lakeside Rodeo.

Not only did the bucking broncos and ornery steers thrash their cowboy riders, but the rodeo was less than 30 minutes old when the contrary horses promptly sent three cowboys to the hospital.

“We’d better get a Greyhound bus for an ambulance,” one rodeo official said as Doug Pena, who competed in the saddle bronc-riding contest, staggered off the rodeo arena. Pena, the third cowboy to be injured Saturday, was unceremoniously thrown by a horse called Satan’s Sister and kicked under the left eye by the bucking animal.

“He’s one tough cowboy,” an enthusiastic announcer said, sitting atop a sleepy white horse, while a dazed Pena--blood dripping down his cheek--was picked up off the dirt and led away by two cowboys who draped his arms over their shoulders.

Moments earlier, Joe Rake and Justin King had been sent to the hospital with a head injury and a broken arm, respectively. Rake, a local cowboy, was injured during the wild horse race, when the horse he was riding threw him to the ground, kicked him in the head and then fell on him, literally leaving him breathless.

King, an 18-year-old performer, suffered a broken arm during the bareback riding event when his bucking horse threw him and then landed on his left arm, breaking it. Minutes before he was injured, King had arrived at Lakeside after driving from Victorville, where he had competed in another rodeo.

While the casualties mounted, the announcer joked that, “It’s raining cowboys in Lakeside.”

Meanwhile, it was no joking matter that the steers were more than holding their own in the bull-dogging contest.

The first five cowboys who tried to wrestle the steers to the ground failed miserably. While the human contestants dusted their hats and walked somberly back to the chutes, their animal challengers strutted around at the other end of the arena, horns pointing in the air, daring the rodeo crew to put them into a holding pen.

Though the hard-luck cowboys had little to laugh or cheer about, rodeo clown Terry Bowen entertained the cowboys and cowgirls in the stands. Bowen, a Drug Enforcement Administration agent who heads the DEA office in Calexico when he is not on the rodeo circuit, did not object when the announcer identified him as an FBI agent.

“Nobody’s ever said that cowboyin’s all glory and no pain,” said Ray Mock, whose specialty is bull riding. “But it’s easier than workin’ 40 hours a week. I picked bull ridin’ ‘cause I’m too lazy to work and too scared to steal.”

Mock, 26, has been bull riding for six years. He said that he “didn’t push real hard” in 1986, so he only earned “ ‘bout 17, maybe 18 hunnert dollars.” Mock, who is from Baton Rouge, La., said that he does not want to go back to being a diesel mechanic, but he realizes that unless he starts winning some events, “I might have to go back to work.”

To sharpen his bull-riding skills, Mock recently paid $225 to attend a five-day school in Santa Maria operated by former rodeo champion Gary Leffews. Every bull-rider’s dream is to get “the rankest bull” and “sit yer ass on that 15 hunnert pound, snortin’ animal fer eight seconds,” Mock said.

The Lakeside Rodeo offered $50,000 in prize money in the events this year. Mock did not compete this weekend because of “a very slight fracture that swelled my shin and got it black and blue.” But he was there to offer encouragement to his friend Joel Fordham, 27, from Fellsmere, Fla., who is also a bull rider.

The two cowboys met last week at Leffews riding school and Mock agreed to accompany Fordham to Lakeside. Both men said that danger, plus the promise of “big money” attracted them to bull riding.

“A good bull rider can make $30,000 to $60,000 per year,” said Fordham, who is a plasterer when he is not riding bulls. “I’m not winning hard enough, but next year I’ll devote full time to this,” Mock nodded in agreement.

“Even at this rodeo, you may be able to pick up a good, little chunk . . . six, seven hunnert dollars maybe. That might be a good week’s work, you know. Eight seconds and yer out of the office,” Mock said.