Wrangler jeans, cowboy boots, broken bones and bull riding took over Kelowna’s Prospera Place on the evening of July 20.
Days before the event rolled into town, Adam Menzies of Kamloops, was contacted by the Professional Bull Riders association (PBR) asking if he could fill in for an injured rider.
The local construction worker, father and husband spends his free time trying not to get bucked off of bulls as an amateur rider at local rodeos.
He said that the bulls brought to Kelowna are like nothing he has ever ridden.
“These bulls are bigger and stronger, they’re top notch.”
Despite being bucked off a 2000 pound bull Menzies said “I sure had a heck of a lot of fun.”
He was convinced to try bull riding at age 19 by a school friend, and it stuck.
“When it gets in your blood, it’s not coming out,” said Menzies.
The rider is still recovering from last year’s injury, when he “snapped his femur in half,” requiring extensive surgery.
He has also been “stomped on” by a bull, resulting in broken ribs and a punctured lung.
He said he keeps getting back on the bull for the love of the sport and the thrill of it all.
“It’s all in your determination and your try,” said Menzies.
He will be back riding bulls at the July 23 rodeo in Alkali, B.C.
Brock Radford won the Kelowna PBR Elite cup series event with 77 points moving him into first place on the cross-Canada championship series.
The event featured 18 brave riders competing in the most dangerous sport in the world.
A doctor working at the event said that most of the riders currently have fractured bones. He explained that he helps prepare the athletes for their ride by giving numbing injections of lidocaine around their injuries.
He said that the biggest part of his job at rodeos is convincing riders that they need to go to the hospital.
Like Menzies said, the sport is all about “determination and try,” and bull riders are certainly tenacious.
READ MORE: Lambert leading the show as PBR Canada Elite Cup comes to Kelowna
READ MORE: Bull riding returning to Kelowna’s Prospera Place
@Rangers_mom
Jacqueline.Gelineau@kelownacapnews.com
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