Senior Airman Matt Morris, 22, a Junction, Texas, native who is currently stationed at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, rides Limousine Sept. 4 at a Rodeo America event in Russheim, Germany. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
Senior Airman Matt Morris, 22, a Junction, Texas, native who is currently stationed at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, rides Limousine Sept. 4 at a Rodeo America event in Russheim, Germany. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
Senior Airman Matt Morris, 22, a Junction, Texas, native who is currently stationed at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, rides Limousine Sept. 4 at a Rodeo America event in Russheim, Germany. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
German Patrick Göschel rides Jonny E during a America Rodeo rodeo event in Russheim, Germany. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
German Patrick Göschel attempts to jump from Mustang Sally after finishing his ride a rodeo event Sept. 4 in Russheim, Germany. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
German Patrick Göschel rides Mustang Sally bareback during the recent rodeo event in Russheim, Germany. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
Spc. Robert Encinio, a native of New Mexico who is stationed in Grafenwöhr, Germany, prepares for the gate to open during the recent Rodeo America event in Russheim, Germany. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
One of the rodeo bullfighter clowns, Uze, pumps up the crowd up prior to the bull-riding event at the rodeo in Russheim, Germany, on Sept. 4. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
Julian Sauerschnig, 30, of Munich, Germany, stops to chat with a bull during a recent rodeo in Russheim, Germany. (Dan Blottenberger/Stars and Stripes)
What has been called one of the most dangerous sporting events in the world lasts only about eight seconds.
Those eight seconds, however, can feel like an eternity when you’re riding a nearly 1,700-pound beast. Or trying to stay on a horse as it races and bucks around a dirt pit enclosed by a steel fence.
“If you don’t have a stomach for it, you are not going to last long,” said E.J. Owens, an Army sergeant stationed in Katterbach, Germany.
Owens, a 25-year-old Black Hawk crew chief, and a half-dozen other cowboys based in Europe travel as often as they can to catch up with the European rodeo circuit in order to get a little fix of home while overseas. They compete with European riders in Rodeo America, a series of events sponsored by the European Rodeo Cowboy Association.
“We don’t do it to replace an adrenaline rush,” Owens said. “It is more the way you were brought up. I was around farms and rodeos growing up.”
After being thrown from a bull just before the eight-second mark during a recent rodeo in Russheim, Germany, Spc. Robert Encinio of Granfenwöhr, Germany, couldn’t agree more with Owens.
“It is rodeo — this is home,” he said, still bouncing with energy following his ride.
With injuries ranging from bruised upper body parts to broken bones and, in some rare cases, paralysis or even death, one might ask why anyone would want to do this.
For many, it is just part of who they are. Being an ocean away from home does not change that, said Staff Sgt. Ryan Inabnet, 26, of Schweinfurt, Germany, who was not participating in the Russheim rodeo because of a back injury he sustained during Army training.
The only reason they keep getting back on after taking a beating from riding in prior events is, in his words, just because, “We are dumb [expletive] rednecks.”
However, the preparation for the sport is not that much different from the training they do for their military jobs.
“You got certain steps you need to take to prevent certain things from happening,” said Owens. “Most of the accidents with complacency are with new people.”
“It is like before you go on a patrol or something. Everyone checks all their gear to make sure all their vests are good and make sure you got water … same as when you come to a rodeo and check your gear prior to riding.”
Owens also said a lot of rodeo is visualization to prepare oneself.
“You sit there and you got a bull or horse to ride you sit there and visualize it in your head about a hundred times before you actually ride it,” he said.
As you sit there and check everything to make sure you’re ready and the judges are getting ready, you are going over everything in your head preparing yourself, he said. Then the gate opens.
“All you got to do is finish that eight seconds,” he said.
Still, injuries play a role in most of the competitors’ military careers as they must fear repercussions from their units if they do get injured.
Inabnet had surgery on his leg following a rodeo accident and his commander tried to reduce his rank because of the incident, he said.
Owens had a similar incident happen to him when he was thrown from a horse and into a fence and had to be at work all banged up and bruised the following week.
“There are more games and practices in a football season in which you are more likely to get hurt doing something like that than here,” said Owens, who injured his collar bone during a ride at the Russheim rodeo.
“The only difference is when you get hurt here normally it is pretty big. When you screw up and get hurt, it is not going to be good.”
Know & GoThe next rodeo — the final of the year — will be Oct. 23-24 in Bad Rappenau, Germany, near Schwäbisch Gmünd, east of Stuttgart, according to 1st Lt. Daniel Woodring, the European Rodeo Cowboy Association president.
