TULSA, Okla. (AP) - On April 12, L.J. Jenkins sat atop a bucking bull named Strong Heart and prepared to do what he had done countless times - hold on for 8 seconds.
In 10 years as a professional bull rider, Jenkins had racked up 42 top-five finishes, 19 90-point rides and $1,791,047 in prize money. He grew up around the sport - his dad rode bareback horses and his brother rode bulls - and was on his first calf before he turned 7. At 18, he turned pro, and at 19 he won the 2006 Professional Bull Riders World Finals event, the Tulsa World (https://bit.ly/1Jwu3ma ) reported.
“I was living in a dream world, really,” said Jenkins about the hot start to his career. “I’d been dreaming about it my whole life, and before I knew it I was there doing it.”
He didn’t quite make it 8 seconds on Strong Heart during competition in Nampa, Idaho. The bull kicked hard and Jenkins went flying. He landed squarely on the top of his head, and the resulting broken neck marked the end of his days as a bull rider.
It is a risk that lurks in the mind of every rider but never quite seems real until it hits close to home.
“Going and talking to people about bull riding, you always say, ’Yeah, it’s a dangerous sport, people can die from it. You could be hurt really bad and end your career in the blink of an eye.’ And you really don’t think as a professional athlete that it could happen to you,” Jenkins said.
His injury brought that line of thought to an abrupt halt.
“He threw me off, I broke my neck, and that’s the last bull that I’ll ever get on,” Jenkins said. “It just puts everything into real life when something like that happens, that it can happen to one of the best guys in the world. Any professional athlete. You’re never safe whenever you’re in this sport.”
Jenkins was told that night he was done riding bulls, but he stayed optimistic for a while. He went through the recovery process, and at the end of it was told once again that his future would not involve bull riding. That’s when the news really hit home for the Springfield, Missouri, native.
“It was tough,” Jenkins said. “It pretty much took the life that I know away from me.”
Jenkins officially retired in July, but he is not gone from the sport. He breeds and raises bucking bulls on his ranch in Porum and is a stock contractor for PBR. He also organizes and promotes events around the state and hauls his bulls to competitions.
He still competes, too - but only through his bulls. The animals are judged in competition just like the riders, and the owner of the top bull at the end of the year can walk away with as much as $500,000. There is still some danger to being around bucking bulls, but Jenkins said it is a rewarding experience.
“If you actually see one make it to the PBR, that’s what it’s all about,” Jenkins said. “We’ll go through a bunch of bulls a year to get that one good one that’s good enough to go. But if you get that one good one, that makes it all worth it.”
His career did not end the way he wanted it to, but as he moves on to this next phase of his life, Jenkins still is thankful that his career-ending injury was not worse.
“It’s not the way I wanted to go out, but I’m 28 years old and I’m still walking, so I’m fortunate,” Jenkins said. “And I’m OK with that decision.”
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Information from: Tulsa World, https://www.tulsaworld.com
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