Page 28 of Rough Stock
Shyanna could see the big bull rattling around inside the chute.What the hell have I gotten myself into?her brain whined. Two pickup riders waited on either side of the gate astride a couple of beautiful horses, and two students acting as rodeo clowns wandered about the center of the dirt oval with their giant rubber barrel. As she climbed up onto the tubular steel rungs of the chute, she decided that she’d possibly completely lost her mind. She didn’t dare turn to look at Jensen. That would most likely have her running for the nearest exit.
Stepping on it first and then letting herself down carefully onto the bull’s back, she waited as the helpers drew the rigging tight and handed her the rope end. She wound it around her gloved hand, worked some rosin into it, and wound it again. Pretty soon, it was as tight as she dared get it, pinky wrap and all. “Flanking strap?” one of the guys asked, and Shyanna nodded. The bull shifted and bellowed, banging one of her legs on the gate, but she held fast.What do I know about this?she asked herself. In seconds, she leaned back against the bull’s back and nodded.
Shifty burst out of the chute on a vertical trajectory and as soon as those front feet came down, Shyanna’s feet came up. The rowels of her smooth spurs grazed the bull’s shoulders as he went back up and her feet came back. Over and over they danced that dance, but Shyanna knew she’d been in trouble from the very beginning. She felt lopsided, like she was sliding to her right, and in seconds, she was in the dirt.
It seemed an eternity until the buzzer went off. How long had she ridden? Two seconds? Three? It was an embarrassingly short time, she knew that much. She scrambled to get out of the bull’s path and in no time, the guys had him back in the holdingarea. She brushed dirt off the seat of her jeans as she walked, limping a little, straight to Jensen. “How’d I?”
“You okay?” he asked, interrupting her.
“Yeah. I’m fine. How did I?”
“No. Roger’s going to critique you. We thought that was best. He’s got more practice at it, and he isn’t… the two of you don’t know each other personally,” Jensen said, faltering a little. “What I mean is?”
“I get it,” Shyanna said and let one corner of her mouth creep up. “That’s fine. So,” she called out, turning toward Roger in the stands about forty yards away, “how did I do?”
“Didn’t get your feet up high enough as soon as he came down that first time. That gave you a false impression of how high they needed to be, so you couldn’t continue with consistency. And you were off balance from the very start.”
“I knew that part. I could feel it. It’s the reason I started slipping toward the end of the ride. How long was I?”
“Around two and a half seconds,” Roger answered. “You’ll do better next time.”
“I certainly hope so,” she muttered under her breath.
“And you held your arm too rigid. Kept it straight but your elbow loose. Locking your elbow will lead to an injury. That tiny little bend will let your muscles do the work and keep the joint from accidentally over-extending.”
“Good to know,” Shyanna said, thinking about his words. He was doing his best to tell her what to do to make everything work better, and she knew she had to get the chip off her shoulder and listen up.
“Let’s watch the other two guys and then you can go again,” Jensen told her, and they took seats in the stands near Roger.
As the two young men rode, Jensen pointed out things they were doing right and things they were doing wrong. Shyanna could see in at least two of those examples how she’d done theexact same thing, to her own detriment. By the time they both had ridden and Jensen and Roger had given their critiques, it was her turn again.
That time, she already had a feel for Shifty. Based on her earlier ride, she knew he was powerful coming out, then settled into a rhythm with a few twists. She could handle those twists. As soon as she got to the chute, she evaluated the rigging. “Pull that a little to the left,” she told one of the guys, and he loosened it and twisted it slightly to her left. “Perfect,” she said as she lowered herself onto the bull. When she had her hand tightened into the rigging, she slid her backside ever so slightly to the left and leaned to the right as she lay back. She could feel it?balance. Perfect balance. “Yup,” she told the guys as she nodded, and the gate opened.
When Shifty came out of the gate, he went straight up again, but when he came down, it was slightly to the left. Shyanna was ready. She could hear Roger’s words in her head:Keep your torso loose and soft. Don’t tighten up. If he shifts left, you shift right, but keep your ass firmly planted, even when your feet are up.The bull was powerful and he did everything he could to dislodge her, but Shyanna hung on. At one point, she felt herself slipping sideways, but she remembered those words and let her upper body go the opposite way, and everything stayed together.
Shyanna barely heard the buzzer?the sound couldn’t make it over the voices in her head, the ones telling her what to do and how to do it. Suddenly, the bull calmed and the next thing she knew, a rescue rider was beside her. “Let go!” he ordered, and she worked her hand loose to let him pull her from the bull, whose flanking strap had already been loosened. The second the bull moved away, the pickup rider spun her and set her on her feet in the dust. She watched as the gate opened and the bull ran straight through it into the holding area. Dusting off the seat of her jeans wasn’t necessary?she hadn’t landed on it.
Her arm hurt from the stress of hanging on but otherwise, she felt pretty good about the ride. Instead of looking to Jensen, her eyes sought out Roger. When she saw him, he shot her a one-hundred-megawatt smile. “Good job!” he yelled down to her.
“So tell me everything I did wrong that time,” she said as she climbed the stands up to where he sat. He spent five minutes pointing out things she’d done both good and bad, but the general consensus was that it had been a good ride. According to him, it wouldn’t have gotten a winning score, but it most certainly would’ve gotten a favorable one.
Jensen had come up to where they sat as they talked, and he slapped her thigh and grinned. “Good job, babe. I think you’ve got potential!” he said with a laugh.
“Oh, she’s got more than potential,” Roger said in agreement. “She’s got a good chance of winning some pretty damn decent money on the circuit if she can just perfect some of those moves.”
Shyanna was ecstatic. Two rides and she was already getting compliments on her work. It could only get better from there.
“You okay?”Jensen asked as he slid under the steering wheel.
“Oh, god, everything hurts,” Shyanna moaned and leaned her head against the glass in the truck’s passenger side window.
“How about your arm?”
“It hurts too.”
He frowned. “I know, but is it swollen?” Hanging onto the rigging was sometimes more than a human arm could safely take without lengthy training, and swelling was one of the first signs.
Rolling up her sleeve, she shook her head. “No. Doesn’t appear to be. But I need a nap.”
