Iron Man Bull Rider with Shane Proctor
Professional bull rider Shane Proctor joins Sandy and Sandra on the podcast today to discuss both the dangers and thrill of his exciting sport. Often referred to as the "most dangerous 8 seconds in sports," bull riding requires riders to stay on the bull for at least 8 seconds while holding onto a rope and with one hand free. In this episode, Proctor, who hails from Grand Coulee, Washington, shares his journey into the sport, and discusses the injuries he has sustained and the challenges he faces as a bull rider.
He begins by talking about how he got his start in the sport at a young age, traveling with his father to rodeos and learning to ride bulls and rope calves. Shane then reviews some of the injuries he has sustained and how he has persevered through the pain to continue competing, and provides an overview of the sport including details regarding the bulls involved, techniques and equipment involved, and how the judging works. He also goes on to highlight the importance of mental preparation and staying focused in the face of danger, the thrill of the sport, and the rush of adrenaline he experiences when he's in the arena. Shane finishes up this fascinating conversation by sharing details about the different types of trick riding acts that his wife, Haley, performs, and offering his perspective on both the future of the sport and the resurgence of interest in the Western lifestyle.
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Transcript:
Dr. Sandra Magnus: It lies somewhere between the pit of your stomach, your racing heart, and your brain, somehow trying to keep it all together. It's an area we call The Adrenaline Zone.
I'm retired astronaut Dr. Sandra Magnus.
Sandy Winnefeld: And I'm retired Navy fighter pilot, Admiral Sandy Winnefeld.
We're two adrenaline junkies who love spending time with people who are really passionate about pushing their boundaries as far as possible.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Professional bull riding has been called the most dangerous eight seconds in sports.
Sandy Winnefeld: These amazing athletes have to stay on the bull at least that long, with one hand gripping a rope tied between the bull's four legs and the other hand completely free.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: And they're usually doing it while recovering from some injury they incurred in a previous event.
Sandy Winnefeld: We were lucky to catch one of the best in the business - Shane Proctor, from Grand Coulee, Washington, otherwise known as the Iron Man.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Many thanks to our sponsor for this episode - Culligan Water.
Sandy Winnefeld: Culligan's drinking water systems deliver the superior filtration and refreshing hydration you need to fuel your high-performance lifestyle. Learn more at: culligan.com.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: We caught up with Shane as he was resting and recovering between events.
Sandy Winnefeld: So, Shane Proctor, welcome to The Adrenaline Zone. We've always wanted to have a Bull Rider on the show, and we're excited to be with you today.
Shane Proctor: Well, thank you for having me.
Sandy Winnefeld: When I last talked to you, you were recovering from what, four broken ribs and a punctured lung. How are you feeling today?
Shane Proctor: I feel all right today. It's been almost two months now, and I actually had six broken ribs, and then I had the laceration on my lung and had a hole in the lung. And after a five-day hospital stay, I was able to get out, and we’re getting to feeling better. I kind of didn't follow doctor's orders because the end of our season was 30 days later. And so, I started riding bulls again 10 days after I got out of the hospital, which is not smart, but you got to make a living and got to kind of push the limits when the end of your season is coming up.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: So, let's go back to the beginning, though. And you started at the sport at an incredibly young age. Can you talk a little bit about how you got interested and what got you started in the first place?
Shane Proctor: Yeah. So, my dad, he was a calf roper, so he did one of the events in rodeo, and we traveled all through the Northwest and up through Canada. And we would go to 75 rodeos a year when I was a little kid growing up, and always traveling with dad. And by the time I was five years old, he put on rope in schools to teach kids how to rope and to perfect our craft, and he would always teach the bull riders to rope. So, they would have another event from the local high school that my dad also taught at. And they would put me on the calves, and that's how I actually learned to ride bulls - was because they would put me on the young calves, and they thought it was funny at the time, but it molded me into the person I am today. And I actually started roping at the amateur level when I was 12 years old and competing with the older ladies, and then by the time I was 15, 16, I started graduating and getting on bigger bulls.
Sandy Winnefeld: So, your dad was a roper, and you ended up as a bull rider. How did you feel about that?
Shane Proctor: Both my parents were teachers, and my dad was a coach, and so they always said I couldn't ride bulls till I was either 18 or moved out of the house. Well, by the time I was 15, 16, I'd bugged them so many times, and they said, “Well if you're going to learn to do it, you're going to learn to do it right.” So, they sent me to a couple of bull riding schools, and that's where I started honing my craft and figuring out the ins and out of bull riding, and by the time I was 18, I was able to buy my permit to become a professional rodeo cowboy.
Sandy Winnefeld: Give us a sense for, you know, you get your license, but how does an aspiring bull rider actually come up through the ranks to make it to the professional world where you're actually in rodeos? How do you even train?
Shane Proctor: I wouldn't say I had my parents' permission. I just annoyed them enough to where they finally gave in, and I leaned down and-- like I said, my dad was a coach, so he got me through the steps and the processes of working my way up. I was able to go to college on a full-ride scholarship for rodeo - I went to Northwest Wyoming and then Montana State University. And so, that was definitely one of-- we started rodeoing in high school, and I started when I was a sophomore in high school competing against the other high school kids in Washington, and then qualified for nationalists three times in the bull riding, and then twice also in the bareback riding, saddle bronc riding. And then I went to college, and I went to Northwest Wyoming for two years, in Powell, Wyoming, which is about 20 miles from Cody, Wyoming. And I was able to rodeo for them for two years, and I qualified for the college national finals, which is where the college kids that's the ultimate goal for them.
So, in our sport, you can buy a permit when you're 18 years old. I started competing against adults when I was 15 in the amateur rodeos associations, and I continued to do that till I was about 19. At the same time, I also bought my permit in PRCA, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. So, we have to win $2,500 to fill our permit, and when we fill our permit, then you can buy your card, and that actually gets you to competing at the major rodeos with all the major cowboys. And so, by the time I was 19, I had my permit filled, and I bought my card and wanted to test myself against the best cowboys in the world. And so, I started traveling, and at-- Rodeo is the one sport where you compete at the college level and also at the professional level at the same time.
Sandy Winnefeld: You know, your story about your parents reminds me a little bit-- we interviewed Tim McGraw, and he said that he was really worried that his mom was going to be mad at him when he left college to go be a country and western singer. And when he told her, she said, "Well, why did it take you so long to tell me?" So, I imagine your parents were pretty proud of you as you were seeing some success.
Shane Proctor: My parents are proud of me. They've been my biggest fans throughout this whole process. I mean, I've called them at three in the morning when I was stuck at an airport in Canada with some flights delayed, and being 20 years old, not being able to rent a car, and just lots of different things, lots of different adventures that they've got to experience. And then my parents, even to this day, if I need help driving, my dad, he flies in, or comes with me, and, you know, helps me drive to the next rodeo. He's hopped in with me several times in the last two years. I mean, I'm 37 years old, and my parents still give me a helping hand when I need it.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: I was just curious how the sport works. You mentioned going from city to city, so is there a set circuit tour that you're all moving along together, or are there different people that show up in different competitions?
Shane Proctor: So, in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, they send out a list, and it's online, and I think there's about 600 rodeos that we can compete at. And so you pick and choose which rodeos you want to enter, and you try to enter for a run or a certain day. And the way it's set up, a lot of times you don't get the day that you request because they can only take so many contestants per event, and each rodeo has different added money. So, like, there'll be the major rodeos, like Pendleton, Oregon, it has like $50,000, $60,000. Houston has $100,000 added, Calgary has $100,000 added, Reno, Nevada has 45,000 added. And so, we'll try to put a run together, and these rodeos can be as little as $500 added, or they can be as much as $100,000 added; it all just depends. And so, we look at the schedule, and I'll start marking off usually the smaller rodeos first, which I only hit if it's along the route or it's along the run.
And our really busy time is between June, July, August, and September. And then, like in the winter months, we usually start off the year in Denver, Colorado, down to Odessa, Texas, go up to Rapid City, South Dakota, and then down to a run in Florida, which is one of my favorite runs, is down in Florida. In the winters, we usually bounce back and forth. We spend a lot of time flying, and then in the summers, is when we get going on the driving.
Sandy Winnefeld: So, let's talk about the rules. We're going to talk to you about what it's actually like to ride a bull here in a second, but in terms of the rules, the basics are you got to do eight seconds, or it doesn't count, and you got to have one hand not touching anything, right? But how do you get points otherwise?
Shane Proctor: You have one hand on the rope, you have a leg on each side of the animal, and then one hand in the air up above. And if you touch the animal or yourself with your free hand, then it's a disqualified ride. Or if you come off and hit the ground before the eight second whistle, it's a disqualified ride. So, the rules are kind of simple - don't touch yourself or the bull, and stay on.
Sandy Winnefeld: But you got to get points. Other points, so are there style points or something like that?
Shane Proctor: Yeah. So, they're style points. So, they mark the animal that you're competing on because not all animals are fair. You know, there'll be two judges, and each judge judges the animal 1-25 for a possible 50, and then they also judge the rider 1-25 for a possible 50, where your score could be 100 points. A really good ride is 90 points, 85-86 is a really good ride, 82 is just okay. And then, they judge on how well in control you are riding the bulls - if the velocity of the bull or the drop in kick and power of the bull gets them points, and then how fast they spin, change the direction, and then they judge the rider on how well in control they are and just the style of the rider. And then at the end, if they actually spur the bull, which means they kick loose with their foot, get a new hold, and actually showcase to the judges that, "Hey, I can do this while I'm riding," and that gets you bonus points.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: So, does that mean the judges have to be ex-bull riders, so they understand all the subtlety? How do you get to be a judge?
Shane Proctor: These judges all go through the school; all of them are past rodeo contestants who've been around the sport. They've almost all competed in all the events in rodeo-- and that's the deal with the judges in professional rodeo - they have to judge all six events. And so, they have to be up to date on each and every event, on all the different rule changes, all the different styles of riding. The calf roping, the tie-in, the steer wrestling, team roping, bareback riding, saddle bronc riding, and bull riding. And then they also have the women's event - barrel racing, and now they're coming with a breakaway roping for the women. And so these judges have to be fluent in each and every event, but then they also have to understand the reason why we do the things for them to be able to judge this.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Wow. That's a lot.
Shane Proctor: It is a lot. It's a lot of pressure on them, and in my opinion, they don't get paid enough.
Sandy Winnefeld: You're just saying that so that if they hear this, they're giving you a little extra credit, right?
Shane Proctor: No, no. It's just a hard field to be in. It's a field where you have a lot of friends and have a lot of enemies.
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If I'm a bull, and I've got Shane Proctor on my back, I'm not going to be happy to start with. But how do they get these bulls to go so crazy on you? Are they bred that way, or is there something that you're doing to stimulate them?
Shane Proctor: It's just like the racehorse business. It's all breeding. It started back in the '70s and '80s, and they started taking the best genetics in the bucking horse industry. And they started breeding the best bloodlines in the cows and crossing them over with the next up-and-coming bull.
Sandy Winnefeld: So, you're on the back of a bull who's bred to hate you?
Shane Proctor: They're not actually even bred to hate you; they're bred to do their job. And their job is to buck cowboys off. And I mean, bulls have such a cool personality because there's some bulls that yeah, they don't like you, they don't want to be around you, their job is to get you on the ground, their job is to do what nature intends for them to do, and hook you around a little bit. And then there's also the ones that, as soon as you get off, they just stop, close their eyes, and walk back to the chutes. I mean, there's some of these bulls-- three-time bucking bull of the year in the PBR. Bruiser, he's a big old pet because they've worked with him so much, and he enjoys his scratches. He likes getting his-- I mean, you can walk right up to him, scratch his ear, scratch his ribs, his butt, he likes it. He's just a big pet and-
Sandy Winnefeld: Just don't get on his back.
Shane Proctor: He just knows when his job is. And some of those bulls, you can even be in the pen with them and get on their back, but then once you run them into the shoot, then they know it's time to work, it's time to be an athlete.
Sandy Winnefeld: That is cool.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Oh, my gosh, that's actually really amazing.
Shane Proctor: Yeah. It's really neat for-- I mean, these bulls, they have a competitive side to them, and it's not just trying to hurt you. I mean, they want to compete and showcase what their talents are, too.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: That's really interesting. And I imagine the perfect bull is somewhere between impossible to ride and really boring, you know, for the scoring purposes. Do you get a choice on what bull you ride, or how does that get matched up?
Shane Proctor: So, it's a random draw through PROCOM, which is the PRCA headquarters, and three days before the rodeo starts, 3-5 days before, depending upon the size of the rodeo, they'll do a random draw-- now they use computers to do it, but and then they'll email you what you drew for each rodeo. And so, when we're going to 30 rodeos, we'll have 30 different draws, and they all come from different stock contractors to the United States that are hired by these rodeos. I mean, and sometimes they'll bring in four or five. Houston brings in, I think, about 10 different stock contractors, and so they're all bringing in their best stock to each and every performance.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Do you ever ride the same bull twice because you just randomly run into it, or is that really low probability?
Shane Proctor: Yeah. So, with the PRCA rodeos, some events have a deal called Extreme Bulls, and that's just a standalone bull riding that they have at the rodeos, usually, to either to start the week or end the week. And they'll take 45 guys, and they'll have just a regular bull riding, and then they'll start the rodeo where it's the full six to seven events. And like in Dodge City, a couple of years ago, I drew the same bull at both the Extreme Bulls and at the rodeo. And I rode them for 87 at the Extreme Bulls, and then he bucked me off and stomped me down the next day at the rodeo.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Oh wow.
Sandy Winnefeld: So, I guess if I'm a baseball pitcher, I'm scouting my hitters I'm going to be up against. If you know in advance which bull you're going to have, are you looking at video to kind of see what their tendencies are?
Shane Proctor: Yeah, you can go and look at videos, especially, with social media these days. We have a place where we can go look up their statistics on their writing percentage and who's been on them. You can call your friends to see who's been on them, or I mean, with Instagram, if they've been rode, you just go look at whoever rode them on Instagram, and most likely, he's posted the ride.
Sandy Winnefeld: So, what happens when you get on a bull, you know, just that day he's not interested in bucking, he just doesn't want anything to do with it. Do you get a redo with a different bull or?
Shane Proctor: Yeah. So, they have a rule where if the animal that you're competing against doesn't perform up to the best of their ability or to the par of the rest of the animals in the pen, then they have what is called a reride. And the judges will throw a flag-- and if he just hasn't performed well, then they'll throw a flag and give you the option to get on another bull-- there'll be three bulls or horses previously drawn before the performance, and you'll just get the next one in line.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: You know, it's so fascinating, all of the subtleties that go along with this sport. It's not obvious as a person watching it that this is all happening, and all these levels of nuances are there. It's fascinating.
Shane Proctor: And it's so fun because all these animals are treated as the best - I mean, these are athletes; some of these athletes cost $100,000-$500,000. And so, they're getting the best grain, they're getting the best feed, I mean, they're pampered, and they work eight seconds a weekend at most. And if they're competing every week, in which most of them will maybe have 12 trips a year, a lot of times.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Wow. So, you mentioned earlier that some of them are, you know, pretty hospitable once no one's on their back. Is that pretty common, or do they generally still go after you when you fall off?
Shane Proctor: Oh, yeah. It takes a little bit for them to get to that point, but a lot of them, a lot of times, you know, they are docile. As soon as the rider is off his back, they know how the game is played, especially, it's been up and down the road a little bit. And it's nice when you have those, and sometimes the actual problem with that is, they know when you're coming off, so they quit bucking so they don't throw you as far, and then they accidentally only step on you.
Sandy Winnefeld: Accidentally, on purpose, step on you?
Shane Proctor: I mean, no. To a lot of them, it's just accidental. They don't want to hurt you; they just want to play.
Sandy Winnefeld: Yeah. Because I would think I'd be more worried about after I get bucked off what that thing's going to do to me than while I'm on.
Shane Proctor: Yeah. And then there's the bullfighters in the arena that also help protect you - they run interference for the bull, and they do it in a very strategic way that allows them to stay safe and you to stay safe at the same time.
Sandy Winnefeld: They call them bullfighters, but they're actually kind of bull clowns, right? Or bull distractors, or?
Shane Proctor: No, they're athletes. A lot of them are ex-football players, ex-track athletes, and they learn how to read bulls in the different directions, and the lead changes - so what foot they step with first, and they learn how to pick them up so they get their attention so we can get out of the arena safely. I had the privilege of going to college as probably the best bullfighter going down the road, named Dusty Tuckness, and I've known him since he was 17 years old. And he started fighting bulls when he was 14 years old. And it was just something he'd always learned how to read cattle and how to get himself and the rider safe out there.
Sandy Winnefeld: Interesting. So, take us into this shoot. Take our listeners into this shoot - you're on the back, you're getting your grip, tell us what you're doing and what's going through your mind before that thing opens up.
Shane Proctor: It's really neat, actually. A lot of people, when they go on the tours, events, and they run a bull, and they can actually feel the chute, start moving around and shaking, and they actually realize how big and how strong those animals are. And then we climb over the bucking chutes. And when I drop down in the chute, I always drop my knees on them first and just let them know that I'm coming, you know, because the bucking chute is where-- if you're going to get hurt, that's one of your most likely areas to get hurt at, because when you have 2000 pounds of muscle in a still chute and the only thing that goes between it and the still is your legs, there's a good chance of getting in there and getting hurt, or having them pop up in the front end and wack you in the chest, or the face, and there's just a lot of variables that go into it where those accidents can happen really easy. And so, I always put my knees down first and let them just know I'm coming. And then I slowly let my legs down, and kind of moving them around, just let them know I'm in there and let them know, and then we warm up our ropes, we stick a rosin pine tar, it's a tree sap that gets stickier when heated up. And so, we run our glove up and down our rope, and this heats up the rosin, and then we stick our hand in the rope, and as you pull your rope tight-- because you want the rope to not to be able to shift around on their back.
Bulls have a really loose hide and feel to them - their skin moves around quite a bit, and so, you want to make sure your rope is in the right place, so you're able to be your best. So, you pull it tight, and then you take and run your tail of your rope across your hand, back around the backside of it in what they call a wrap. And then, usually, I put a twist in it so that it folds around my hand and then tuck it back in through my fingertips. And so, after you've heated up this pine tar tree sap, it's really sticky and gives you the best ability to hang on. And a lot of people think that when we're riding bulls, we're just hanging on and just gripping tight with our legs and our hands. And actually, the deal is, we actually stand up on our legs. So, we get a lot of bending our knees, we drive our knees into them, and that way, we have contact with our feet, our calves, our knees, our groin muscles, and then we actually push off the bull’s back so that there's a little bit of clearance between yourself and the bulls. And that just allows you to take the-- when you stay to the front end, and then when they kick, you set your hips and get your hips back underneath you, and lift on your rope, and then you drive back to the front as they come back up to the front again. And that's just basic necessities because there's no way that we can just hang onto the bull and just grip. You actually have to move with them, and you have to allow them to move underneath you. And so, you stand up on your knees and let them actually, as they roll back and forth, you're just moving your hips and letting them move underneath you.
Sandy Winnefeld: So, there's sort of a rhythm you're getting into with the bull?
Shane Proctor: It is a rhythm. And you can pick up-- like I was talking earlier about the leads of the bulls. You can pick up which way they step and which way they feel, and you can actually feel which way they're going to turn by the way their feet are planted.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: So, do you wear any kind of protective gear at all?
Shane Proctor: Yep. So, mandatory, we all wear a vest. And it's not a bulletproof vest or anything like that, it's a hard shell, and then there's padding around it. It's about a little less than a half-inch thick, and these are actually designed for bull riding. So, they're designed so when a bull steps down, instead of the impact being in that one small location, it actually spreads it out over a larger area. And so, they started coming out with vests in, I'd say, I think 1987, '88, is when the first vest-- Cody Lambert was the first one-- he was part of the PBR, he was the first one to ever come out with vest after one of his friends passed away. And then a lot of times we ride, a lot of guys ride with helmets now that are made for bull riding - they have a titanium face mask, and they have a shell that's just like the vest - when the impact hits, it spreads it over a larger area, allowing us to-- for me, it's a business decision. I also promised my mom when I was-- she wouldn't let me ride bulls without a helmet, and I just never quit. It's a business decision for me - the less I get hurt, the more I can ride, the more money I can make because we're gambling with-- I mean, we pay an entry fee every time we ride. So, like at a lot of rodeos, we're paying $221 to compete, and then we have a chance at that money. So, we're basically gambling on ourselves each and every week.
Sandy Winnefeld: Well, you know, we talk to a lot of people about risk and how they manage risk, and you just gave us some pretty good rundown of why you do that and how you do that. And you've probably gotten smarter as you've gotten older in terms of how you do that.
Shane Proctor: You know, that has to do with it-- it's a business - the more bullies you can get on, you know, that's why I protect myself with a mouthpiece, and a face mask, and a helmet. And then also, where I enter my rodeos across the United States, Canada, it's where I feel like I have the best chances at winning at. So, a lot of times when I was younger, I always wanted to compete against the best, and so I would always enter the big rodeos and go compete against the top 15 riders each week, each and every day. And then, as I've progressed a little bit, as I've gotten older, I realized I don't have to compete against the top 15 every day. So, I can skip off to a smaller rodeo. And it probably has less competitors in it, and have a lot better chance of gambling on myself, knowing I'm going to win that, and still make money, and then still compete against the top ones at the big rodeos, but I can pick and choose.
And since I have a family now and I have a little girl, I try to travel more with my wife and my child more. And so I don't go to as many rodeos as I have in the past, and I just like being with my family.
Sandy Winnefeld: You probably are one of those top 15 now.
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Sandy Winnefeld: You have had a lot of injuries, like a lot of bull riders; it's just part of the game, right? So, I was thinking, a few minutes ago, that maybe you let your ribs break, so it takes your mind off your knees, but give us a little bit of a rundown of some of the things you've been through physically.
Shane Proctor: I know what I've been in the last two years.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Goodness.
Shane Proctor: So, last June, I broke my leg. I broke my right leg, had a plate and seven screws put in my right leg, and they said it'd be three months before I could put weight on it. And I started riding bulls-- I had the opportunity to get invited to Calgary, Alberta, which is one of our biggest rodeos of the year, and it's invitation-only rodeo. And so, they only take 22 guys, and so I cut my cast off when I was in Calgary, Alberta, so that I could ride; I still wasn't putting weight on it yet. I had a new called iWALK. It looks like a part leg, but it was a really handy deal where I didn't put any pressure on my foot, and I could walk around. And then, when it came time to ride, I strapped my boot on and got on bulls. And then, as soon as I was done, I was back on crutches. And so, that went by, and then in September, I had eight anchors in both shoulders, holding my shoulders in from previously shoulder surgeries. And I had hit on my elbow at Ellensburg, and it popped my shoulder out. And in the process, I had already had two rotator cuffs torn in my left arm. And in the process, the long-head bicep tendon had slipped underneath the two rotator cuffs over the head of the humerus, which is the ball that goes up in the socket. And when it flipped over the head of the humerus, it popped back into socket, so my long-head bicep was stuck actually on the backside of my shoulder over here without tearing.
And so, as it was like a rubber band that was at full capacity, and so I could only move my arm about six inches to the front and six inches up, and then it would get stuck. And so, I finished off the last part of the season with that.
Sandy Winnefeld: And that's your rope arm, right? That's the arm you're holding on?
Shane Proctor: That was my free arm. That's what I used to balance with.
Sandy Winnefeld: Oh, okay.
Shane Proctor: And when I did that, I went down to see a doctor who works on all the professional cowboys, and it was something that he had never seen, nor the radiologist had ever seen. And so, his guess was to just go in and cut the long head bicep tendon because the NFR, our National Finals Rodeo, was 35 days away. So, I had surgery; he went in, he cleaned up a couple of spots in my rotator cuffs, and then he snipped my long head bicep, and then we got back into therapy and started building my bicep tendon. And so, I had that torn bicep look where it was popeyed down at the bottom, and I was able to compete 35 days later. And then this year in May, I end up tearing my right bicep because I had-- at the finals, a bull jumped in the chute, and my shoulder had slipped a little bit, and something was catching. And eventually, this year, I ended up tearing my right bicep, so that kept me out for a month. And then, after three weeks, it did that same deal where it was popeyed out, and after about three weeks, I was able to come back and ride and be okay. And then, what else did I do? Oh, then I broke my ribs - then I broke the six ribs, punctured the lung. That's what I've been through in the last two years.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Goodness, gracious.
Shane Proctor: I've had both shoulders redone. I've had my knee scoped and worked on.
Sandy Winnefeld: I think the NFL players should probably learn something from you, right? I mean, these guys-
Dr. Sandra Magnus: They're a bunch of wimps compared to bullfighters.
Shane Proctor: Yeah. But for me, for some reason, I always ride better when I'm hurt because the adrenaline of what I do gets me going. Like, I love to compete. I love to be competitive in what I do. I love the challenge. I love the adrenaline of competing against something that's not supposed to happen. And so, when I get hurt, that just even puts me at more of a disadvantage, and I don't know, it actually fires me up because I feel like I'm doing something that I shouldn't be. And that's what is with the sport - the whole reason the sport started was somebody said, "You couldn't do that," and they said, "Oh yeah, watch me."
Sandy Winnefeld: So, I guess if you're going to violate doctor's orders, you better make something come out of it, right?
Shane Proctor: I don't say I violate doctor's orders. I say I have an educated guess about my body that I'm the only one qualified to know what it's capable of.
Sandy Winnefeld: I love it.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: So, is that how you got the name Dr. Proctor?
Shane Proctor: That just came as a kid, and then I was at a college rodeo, and this stock contractor who had bulls, who was actually close to my house on the same reservation I grew up on, he had these bulls at these college rodeos, and this bull leaps out in the chute, and bucks really, really hard, phenomenally hard. And about six seconds, he brings me down on his head and knocked me out, and they said, "Somebody go get a doctor for Proctor," and that became the bull's name - he became Dr. Proctor, and then the next year he was actually reserved bucking bull of the year.
Sandy Winnefeld: So, in your case, this is a family business, right? And we were really privileged earlier, as we were coming online, to meet your lovely wife, Haley. She's really something. Can you tell us a little bit about what she does and how that all works together as a business and as a family?
Shane Proctor: So, my wife, she travels almost as much as I do, and she's a professional specialty act. So, her job is kind of like halftime entertainment during the rodeo - she's there to entertain the crowd for a short period of time, do her job, and then get out so that we can continue with the rodeo. And what she's most well known for is Roman riding. And what she does is she has one foot on each horse, and she goes faster than anybody around the arena. And then she leaves torches that are lit on fire, and then goes over, then splits the torches between the two horses, and then she loops around, and she has a ring of fire that she jumps both horses through while she's standing up on their backs.
Sandy Winnefeld: She's standing on bareback horses, right? There's no saddle or anything like that?
Shane Proctor: Well, she actually has - they're called Roman pads, but it's just a tree, and all that's there is to protect the horse's backs with foam, and that's it - there's no strap, she's not tied on. She moves around, she turns around backward, and she weaves these fire torches. And then, at Pendleton, Oregon, her and another Roman rider raced around the track standing up on-- both of them were standing up on two horses and just going as fast as they could. And it was just like a horse race going four wide. It was pretty spectacular.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Wow. That's amazing. That takes a lot of training.
Shane Proctor: And then she also has a liberty horse, which she lays down. She does a whole act with it, and that lays down, sits up, it marches, it rares up, stands on his back legs, and then she climbs on a pedestal with it. She's taught him to do a whole bunch of tricks, and her last deal is trick riding, which is where you hang off the side of the horse as it runs around the arena, and there's actually a couple of straps, one you stick your foot in, and you just drop-- and like her shoulder will be bouncing off the ground, she's running around. She stands up in the hippodrome, straps where she's standing up carrying an American flag with pyro, and she actually won a world championship in that, I think, about eight years ago. And so, they have competitions for that also, but then that's what-- she's hired to travel. I think she had 89 performances this year, traveling from-- she started off the year in Arizona, then she went to Florida, then she went up to Washington State, over to California, to Utah, to Nebraska, back to Utah, and that's what she does for a living.
Sandy Winnefeld: So, do you all have trouble synchronizing your schedules at all?
Shane Proctor: So, the one thing about her is, each weekend-- she's at one rodeo per weekend, except for in our busy time of the year, she'll be four performances, say Salinas, California, then the next day she'll be three performances in Nephi, Utah. So, she'll perform, pack up, drive all night, head there, and then up to South Dakota, over to Montana. And she'll put runs together where she's-- sometimes, she has a couple of days in between, but the thing with her is, she's at a rodeo for two to four days. You know, five days, six days, and then she'll-- sometimes, she has a day off, and then she's performing again at another rodeo.
Sandy Winnefeld: Wow.
Shane Proctor: So, when I was going real hard, I would always enter the rodeos that she was working so I could at least be there for a day or two and then go back out.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: You know, you mentioned that she won an award earlier, but you have two -including the 2008 Toughest Cowboy competition, which I am completely not surprised, but that netted not only a cash prize but a 36-acre ranch in Colorado.
Shane Proctor: Yep.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: And I can't even imagine how you are managing this ranch, assuming you still have it and traveling the way you are. You guys are super busy.
Shane Proctor: I actually sold the ranch a couple of years ago, and then last week, we purchased 189 acres in Oklahoma, right across from Muster Run Cows. So, I went from a 36-acre ranch to 189-acre ranch.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Oh, my goodness.
Shane Proctor: Plus the 20 we already had. So, yeah, my wife, her family is into raising cattle, and it's what they've done - my mother-in-law is also a teacher, and then Haley's grandpa, Coot, my little girl's great grandpa he runs about 80 head of Mama cows down in Oklahoma. And so, we're working our way into raising more cows and producing more of the beef side of the industry.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Yeah. And then you'll let you slow down a little bit, huh, with your kid?
Shane Proctor: Not necessarily.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Don't want to slow down? Nope?
Shane Proctor: My wife, she's a little younger than me, so she still feels like she's got some more time to rodeo, and I'll be there to support her with whatever she does, and then also at the same time, I'll try to run these cows while we're back at the house, and it's something-- and then we have, right now, we're 11 head of horses, and because my wife keeps six on the road with her, and then there's always new ones in training. And so, it's repetitive. And then our new season actually starts before our old season ends, and so, there's really no downtime. So, we're always on the go.
Sandy Winnefeld: Well, I got news for you: by the time Haley is ready to retire, you're going to have a little girl who's going to be wanting to do the same thing.
Shane Proctor: Yeah, definitely. She's a spitfire - she got both her mama and her dad's personality - she's stubborn like her dad and tough like her mama. She's already riding horses, she has her own pony, and she'll be two at the end of the month, and she's already performed in three rodeos riding her pony.
Sandy Winnefeld: Wow, that's really cool.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: That's awesome.
Sandy Winnefeld: So, let's talk a little bit about the West. You know, the West is kind of enjoying a bit of a resurgence in American culture and our entertainment culture. You know, our friend Tim McGraw, who I mentioned earlier, we interviewed, you know, starred in 1883 with Faith Hill, we now have, you know, Yellowstone, you know, Coors Banquet Beer’s positioned for its 150th year anniversary, are you seeing any impact, as you go around the country, and going to so many rodeos in attendance, overall interest? Is that picking up, or is it kind of the way it's always been for you?
Shane Proctor: So, the Western lifestyle has always been the way I've been raised. I think with Yellowstone in 1883, is that there's more people interested in it to see what the original Western way was, and we are the original extreme sport-- when it comes to, you know, we were here before motocross, dirt bikes, snowmobile, and we've been doing it. We made our way doing it for a long time. And, you know, there's there's always a great fan base in like Cheyenne and Houston, and every Utah rodeo you go to, it is always sold out. It's an amazing state to rodeo out of. And I don't know if those series have impacted our fan base or if, you know, everybody just wants to be a part of it. They just want to be a part of, I think, kind of history, the way it used to be, and I think that's the way it should be.
Sandy Winnefeld: Wow.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Wow.
Sandy Winnefeld: I think we could talk to you for a lot longer because there's so many nuances in this business, more than I ever expected. You know, I've had a chance to talk to and hunt with old retired cowboys but never really got into the sort of nuances, and we're not even scratching the surface, I'm sure. But it's really cool to finally be able to catch up with you, and I'm really grateful to you for spending your time with us today. It's been really cool.
Shane Proctor: Yeah. Even when we're home, we're always running, doing something. We tried to set this up a couple of weeks ago, and I was working cows, and I'm sorry about that, but we're always moving.
Sandy Winnefeld: We didn't want to get in the way of a working man - we're just entertaining. You were working.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: We really appreciate the chance to chat with you today, Shane, and I learned a lot, and I am just super excited to see what you're doing and that you can-- this just goes to show that whatever passion someone has, you can make a profession out of it, and make a life out of it. And oh, my gosh, it's just so exciting what you're doing.
Shane Proctor: Well, bull riding has given me everything in this life - you know, whether it's education, whether it's travel, whether it's adventure, it's what I live for, it's what my family lives for, and it really has given us everything that we could ever want.
Sandy Winnefeld: Well, this has energized me to go see another rodeo sometime. I pass through Denver a lot, and now I'll have to track the schedule there.
Shane Proctor: It starts in January. My wife worked it a couple of years ago.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: I'm going to totally watch for that.
Sandy Winnefeld: In the meantime, you know, you're probably taking more chances driving around on the highway in some cases, but I don't know, this may be the most dangerous person we've had a chance to interview since we've started this podcast.
But be safe out there, and we look forward to tracking your career in the future.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: Thank you.
Shane Proctor: Thank you, guys, for having me.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: That was Rodeo Bull Riding champion Shane Proctor. I'm Sandra Magnus.
Sandy Winnefeld: And I'm Sandy Winnefeld.
Thanks again to Culligan Water, for sponsoring this episode. Your life is about taking risks; your water shouldn't be. Learn more at: culligan.com.
Dr. Sandra Magnus: And check us out on social media, including a short video about interview with Shane on TikTok. Our handle is very simple: @theadrenalinezone.
