Many years ago, I attempted to be a bull rider. It started out as a bet but after I rode my first bull and covered him, I started to think that I might be able to do this and win something at it. It was a terrifying experience for me. The ride itself was a lot of fun but the few minutes leading up to the actual ride was a fearful time. I kept hearing people say “it’s not if you get hurt, it’s when and how bad”. In my 43 rides I saw more than a few riders get hurt.
I eventually went to Gary Leffew’s bull riding school. It was a lot of fun. Most of the bulls that we rode were just “jump and kickers” that were learning how to buck as we were learning how to ride. It was still really uncomfortable for me about 10 minutes or so before I rode. I never sized the loop in my bull rope one time. There was always someone there to do it for me. I don’t do knots and such very well, least of all when I am nervous. I would climb over the bull and put my hand in the rope, line up my little finger with the backbone of the bull and have it tightened down. I would not actually get down on the bull’s back until just before I nodded. I just put my feet in the slats of the chute. I had gotten banged around on one where I had gotten down on him early and did not want to repeat that. Just before I would nod, I would pray “just you and me Lord” which was an acknowledgement that I was not in control of anything from here on out and I trusted Him to get me through this. I think that it is important at this time to tell you what kind of spiritual life I had. I was drunk and rowdy a lot of the time. I would pray every night, but many times I was just too drunk to pray so I told God that and would go to sleep…or pass out. I came to the conclusion that I did not merit protection or help. I didn’t earn it. God just gave it. That has been a profound lesson in grace that I still remember very well 47 years later. I never got hurt bad enough to be carted off to the hospital. The one time that I did get hurt bad I was not aware of it.
I had not ridden anything that bucked for about a year and I was at a rodeo in a small town in northern California. I was spectating at the Trinity County Fair Rodeo in Hayfork California. They were honoring my grandfather for his many years of service on the Fair Board. The announcer had said that they were going to turn a horse out in the bareback bronc riding and asked for volunteers. Frankly, I have never heard of that before or since but I volunteered to ride. I had no rigging, so I borrowed a left-handed one from a friend of mine. I rode right-handed. I didn’t have spurs but didn’t think it would matter much because all I planned to do was to mark the horse out and then “go to the Ds” and safety up for the rest of the ride. In other words, I just wanted to survive. I had ridden a bareback bronc once before.
I marked the horse out and that was the only thing that went right. I asked about this horse and they told me I would be fine. He just “jumps and kicks.” About the third jump he stretched me out and messed up some ligaments in my left arm. I ended up on the horse’s butt and he launched me into the air so high that the air temperature changed. Seriously, I was pretty high in the air. I did a “lawn dart” type of landing straight on my head. It hurt. I felt like I was shorter after I got up. I was checked for concussion later on and cleared by the paramedics. My neck really hurt.
Later on, true to form, I got drunk and then got in a fight with my uncle who quickly thrashed me. I could not move my neck for weeks. Six months later in February of the following year I dislocated my right shoulder in a skiing accident. I went to the doctor and he x-rayed it. When he entered the room, he had a funny look on his face and I was worried. He said my shoulder would be okay but then started asking me about an injury to my neck that appeared to be fairly recent. I told him what happened at Hayfork. He was amazed that I had not been treated with a “halo” around my head and neck to stabilize the injury. He told me that I broke my c2 and c3 vertebrae on my neck and that they had fused together. He further exclaimed that I was a very lucky young man to not be a quadriplegic. Oh, and I was now 1/2 inch shorter than I had been the year before. Apparently the six weeks where I could not move my neck had allowed the healing to occur. Frankly, I did not take him as seriously as I should have. My doctor did not approve of my lifestyle and I thought he might be overdramatizing a bit to get me to change my ways.
Ten years later I started to have some problems with my neck. I got an x-ray that showed that I had a bone spur coming from the injury that was growing towards my throat. At the time of this discovery, I was in a men’s bible study at the church I attended. One of the participants was a young man who was barely mobile and relied heavily on his crutches. At the end of the study, I asked him what happened. He said that he had been in a diving accident in a pool. He said that he broke hisc2 and c3 vertebrae. I felt my stomach tighten and I know that all the blood rushed from my face. I now knew what I had been saved from. When my uncle thrashed me that night after the Rodeo, he had jammed my head neck and shoulders down on the hood of his car, somehow it didn’t cause me to be paralyzed, nor did anything else in the ensuing weeks while my neck healed.
God had done the miraculous and I had not even been aware of it. I am convinced that I did absolutely nothing to deserve this favor. After all, isn’t grace unmerited favor? My dangerous drunken behavior back in those days just hurt me and sometimes those around me. I was a believer but not a very obedient one. But then again, isn’t that the way that you love your children? No matter what they do you still love them and are willing to help them and/ or protect them. That is the nature of the most important part of being a Christian. It is relationship with God. It is not like a business contractual agreement based on equal elements of commitment and duty. It is not necessarily following strict rules of behavior or anything else that is based on what we do. After all, it isn’t what we do it is what He already did on the cross. My lifestyle now bears no resemblance to the one that I had when I broke my neck. I love God and obey Him out of love, not to win “brownie points” for protection. I am fully aware of the cost of sin and have many lessons that were painful to me that have served to change my lifestyle. The biggest change has come from knowing Him and having relationship with Him. Like any relationship this takes time alone to pray and listen to Him. You can’t have a relationship with anyone unless you take the time and energy to do it. I believe that the most important relationship in my life is the one that I have with Christ. After all, for now and eternity it’s just “you and me Lord”.
As we enter the Spring and rope again, I wish you the best. Stay safe and rope great!
If you have any questions or comments, please email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Bob Ow lives in Ferndale, California on the northern coast. He and his wife Jo Anna, own a small 5 acre ranch and two really good rope horses. Bob is an independent financial advisor (which pays for his roping expenses), and an elder at a Ferndale Community Church.