LASALLE — Kody Lostroh remembers the first time he talked to his future wife, Candace. Because, well, he did a lot more gawking than talking.
“I was 13, and she was the rodeo princess,” Lostroh said. “I thought she was really good- looking. Then, when I was like 16, I finally got to meet her. But I was too scared to talk to her.”
Too scared? Lostroh? That may have been a first and last. The man makes his living riding three-quarter-ton bulls, living, snorting testaments to testosterone that buck off so many riders they ought to provide frequent-flier miles.
Lostroh 24, stands at the top of the bull-rider mountain these days, having recently won the Professional Bull Riders’ world title in Las Vegas to push his yearly earnings to more than $1.6 million. Talk about no pain, no gain. Three days later, he was on a surgeon’s table having his left elbow repaired.
A few bone chips, torn ligament, some frayed muscle tissue . . . a scratch for a bull rider.
“This ain’t really even a big deal,” Lostroh said.
Not after you’ve endured two broken legs, broken ribs, a broken back, a broken nose and a broken face. A broken face? A fractured cheekbone and eye socket, courtesy of a fire-breathing freight train named Sunshine in Cody, Wyo.
“It wasn’t the most fun thing ever, but it turned out all right,” Lostroh said. “I got bucked off and the bull stepped on the back of my neck and shoulder and drove my face into the ground.”
What was he thinking at that moment?
“Wasn’t thinking anything. I was knocked out.”
No pain, no gain — no tell
Lostroh was raised on a farm near Longmont, but lives in rural LaSalle, southeast of Greeley. He isn’t sure how many times he has been knocked unconscious, but it’s more than a few. Then there’s the matter of those 10 to 12 concussions he has suffered. At least he took some time off in between before getting back on the bull. An hour, maybe two in some instances.
“A lot of times, bull riders get concussions, but they never tell a doctor,” he said. “You’re going to get your chickens scattered, but you’re not going to talk to a doctor about it. I don’t know if we’re tough or stupid or what, but that’s not something you’d consider talking to a doctor about.”
So they ride on, going from event to event, booking their own travel, sleeping in hotel rooms with fellow competitors. It’s a glorious life, but somebody’s got to live it. The fear factor? Doesn’t exist.
There’s no crying in baseball and no flinching in bull riding. Not even for a rider’s wife.
“It’s more adrenaline for me,” Candace said. “I just have to control myself because I’ll get pretty excited too. But I’m not scared. If I was, it would be really hard to be his wife. I hate it when he gets hurt, but I know it’s part of the deal.”
Being able to stay on a bucking bull for the required 8 seconds is one thing. Doing it with an elbow crying out for a reconstruction is another. And becoming the first Colorado rider ever to win the PBR world championship while in that condition is something altogether different.
Willis Reed became a legend 40 years ago for making two jump shots on a torn knee ligament. Jack Youngblood played in an NFL playoff game with a broken leg. Lostroh? He endured most of this season with a barking elbow on his riding arm, no thanks to a nasty spill he took in Omaha in late April.
PBR co-founder and livestock director Cody Lambert remembers the day.
“He was injured on Neon Ghost,” Lambert said. “He not only wrecked his elbow, he broke his nose. Came back three weeks later in Pueblo and rode the same bull with an injured elbow. That showed me something.”
Lambert was among the many PBR insiders who assumed Lostroh’s quest for the world championship would come up short after such a severe injury, particularly with Lostroh’s rival, J.B. Mauney, in hot pursuit.
“He basically suffered a season-ending injury, but he didn’t let it end his season,” Lambert said. “Everything had to be so technically correct when he was riding. He was able to take the pressure off that elbow by not making any mistakes. Even when you’re 100 percent healthy, that’s real, real difficult. When you’re protecting an injury like that, it’s nearly impossible.”
Perfectly built for bull-riding
Lostroh won the Built Ford Tough Series, the PBR’s elite circuit, by 594 points over Mauney. For those of you who can’t tell a bull from a cow, here’s all you need to know: Lostroh’s margin of victory was so close that if he had been bucked by one more bull out of the estimated 120-150 he rode during the season, he would have finished second to Mauney.
“Kody stayed on 64.2 percent of the bulls and J.B. 63.4 percent,” Lambert said. “I’ll tell you what. He earned it. He earned every dime. Not any of it was given to him. He’s paid a great price to be where he’s at. A lot of guys the same size as he is can’t come anywhere close to him as a rider.”
Every rider on the PBR circuit is outmatched when he gets on the bull. But at 5-feet-6 and 155 pounds, Lostroh is small compared to two-legged competitors, much less those with four. But to hear him tell it, his size is an asset.
“I’m the perfect bull rider, as far as size goes,” he said. “I’m not trying to be cocky or anything, but I tend to fit the bulls better. When you’ve got a taller guy with a whole lot of upper body above the bull, your center of balance is way higher.”
Lostroh had what amounts to a career year on the PBR circuit in 2009. He received a $1 million bonus for winning the Built Ford Tough title. Before this year, he had never made more than $293,000, before expenses.
What to do with all that money?
He and his wife are hoping to close soon on a piece of land in Barnesville, northeast of Greeley. After that, he’d like some wheels to get there.
“I’d like a four-wheel drive truck,” he said. “Right now, all I have is two-wheel drive. I guess I should buy a Ford since they just gave me a million bucks.”
Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com
