The action at the Grand National Rodeo is in the area where modern day gladiators meet their four-legged adversaries. But, behind the lights, glitter and the music, medics also perform.
“This is not only first aid here, it’s second and third, too,” said Dr. Buff Randall Greedier of Sunnyvale, one of two volunteers who patch up the cowboys and cowgirls in a small room in the cavernous Cow Palace. “We do sports medicine, and the most important tool for most of the injuries we treat is a bag of ice. If contestants have made it this far on the circuit they will have chronic pain.”
That pain is a result of being gored by a bull, kicked in the head by a bucking bronco, broken bones and wrist injuries due to a twisted saddle grip. Justin Boots also sponsors a sports medicine trailer out in the parking lot for drop-in patients.
The Grande Dame of the rodeo world made its 61st visit to the Bay Area this week. Bullriding is illegal in San Francisco but technically the Cow Palace arena is in Daly City. In fact, the county line runs through the parking lot.
“Although we check for internal injuries, most get bruises from the momentum of a creature that large hitting a man that small,” Dr. Greedier said. “That blow causes a lot of pain but concussions, not open wounds, are the real danger.”
Paramedics are standing by at every performance and rules require an ambulance as well.
“It’s not the money because most of the guys have days jobs,” he said.
“Rodeoing is pretty much an addiction and you have to do it for the love of the sport. Men and women get banged up but they keep coming back for more.”
One of the guys who tangled with a bull’s horn during an afternoon performance was Clayton Foltyn, 22, of El Campo, Texas.
“I flew in from Las Vegas this morning after riding bulls yesterday,” he said while nursing a groin injury with a bag of ice. “ But after this, I think I’ll go back to Texas for about a week before I do another rodeo in Corpus Christi.”
Foltyn has been riding professionally for three years and has his share of injuries to show for it: a broken wrist, a few concussions and a “messed up shoulder.” He is one of the few bullriders who wears a protective helmet out of the chute, but that trend is becoming more common.
“Before the ride I try to put on my game face and stay focused and stay on the bull,” he said. “My dad is in the rodeo business and after college I plan on starting a bull business back home.”
He says the money is an incentive to keep going but there is another reason for being involved in such an extreme sport.
“It’s addicting,” he says. “Or maybe I’m just too lazy to have a real job.”
