Henry eased down into the chute and onto his saddle, which was already strapped to the big bay horse’s back. He carefully adjusted the length of his thick rope rein, making sure the horse would have plenty of room to get his head down while bucking. This one adjustment could make or break his ride. If the rein was too short, Henry would get jerked out of the saddle, too loose and Henry wouldn’t be able to use it to help with his balance. When he had what he thought was an appropriate length in his rein, he shoved his feet deep into his oxbow stirrups and nodded to the cowboy on the ground to open the chute.

Twister reared straight up on his hind legs as soon as the chute opened, slamming Henry’s right shoulder hard against the metal piping. Most riders would have lost their concentration right then and there and more than likely would have fallen off at the horse’s first jump. But not Henry. Hitting his shoulder only made him mad and more determined. The horse, still on his hind legs, turned and burst into the arena in a spectacular display of athleticism most folks had never seen. The horse’s hind legs snapped twenty feet high in the air, then he twisted his body so much that his belly was exposed to the sun, at the same time he flung his head one way then the other, then he launched himself this way then that, and repeating the pattern over and over.

Henry rode him like he was a carousel horse on a merry-go-round and made it look easy. The buzzer that signaled eight seconds went off and a huge roar went up from the crowd, although Henry couldn’t hear it. The pick-up man galloped over to Henry and Twister to help Henry get off, but before he got to them the big bay jammed his front legs so hard into the ground that his nose hit the dirt and he flipped himself head over heels with Henry still in the saddle. Henry landed hard on the same right shoulder that was injured in the chute, severely dislocating it, and fracturing six ribs when he was pinned between the saddle and the ground.

Henry had ridden the horse to a score of ninety-seven, good enough to take home the first place prize of three hundred dollars. That, coupled with the five thousand dollars bounty money he made for making the buzzer, gave him a nice chunk of money for the day’s work. Even though his hospital bill was fifteen hundred dollars, that still left him with thirty-eight hundred, which was more than he’d ever won before. The injuries he suffered that day sidelined Henry for a good long while, and while he was recuperating he was also trying to decide whether he would go back to a life in rodeo after he healed up, or go back to a more stable life in ranching. About that time Annie’s barrel horse came up lame and out of commission when he stepped on a nail left over from the sloppy habits of a maintenance worker at the Cedar City, Utah, rodeo. Just like that his decision was made, and Annie happily followed suit. Both were out of rodeo and back to ranching.