Vanessa Hodgson takes a break from bull riding to feed horses on her family's farm northeast of Niles.
Tribune Photo/JASON MILLER
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Spills & thrills
Rookie bull rider has ups and downs
By LOU MUMFORD
Tribune Staff Writer 10/27/03
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Vanessa Hodgson takes a break from bull riding to feed horses on her family's farm northeast of Niles. |
NILES -- Vanessa Hodgson puts up with more bull than anyone, man or woman, in Niles.
And she loves it.
The Professional Women's Rodeo Association's 5th-ranked bull rider, the 19-year-old Hodgson, a 2002 graduate of Niles Senior High School, will be in Fort Worth, Texas, this weekend for the PWRA's finals competition.
The 5-foot-6-inch, 125-pound Hodgson says riding bulls 15 times her size doesn't intimidate her now and didn't intimidate her a year ago when she rode her first bull, Jack of Diamonds, at the D-S Rodeo Co., in Bristol.
"I was hooked,'' she said. "It was so much of an adrenaline rush; it was amazing.''
Still in her rookie year of bull riding, she said she has ridden close to 100 of the beasts, only about 10 percent of them successfully. But she has done better of late, she said, and she has no intention of giving up, despite the considerable danger.
While other female bull riders sometimes wear helmets and face masks, Hodgson's protection consists solely of a mouth guard and vest.
They came in handy earlier this year, when a bull named Hollywood threw her in Tucson, Ariz. The only problem was, Hodgson's right hand remained firmly implanted under the riding strap, leaving her flailing at the bull's side.
Her parents, LaVonna and Gregory Hodgson Sr., were on hand to witness Vanessa "getting hung up in jerk down,'' as it's known in rodeo parlance.
"The bull kept spinning. ... Her body was flapping backwards and forward,'' Gregory Hodgson said.
LaVonna said all Vanessa's rides are scary but her trip aboard, and beside, Hollywood was the scariest.
"She a tough girl,'' she said. "To see a pretty little thing get on a bull and see what she can do, it amazes me.''
Although Vanessa was hung up for a minute or more before her hand finally pulled free, she suffered nothing worse than a bruised toe. Far worse, she said, was a similar situation a few months before in which she suffered a bruised thigh and ribs.
Niles' Vanessa Hodgson is at the mercy of this bull after it threw her during a competition earlier this year in Tucson, Ariz. She said her only injury was a bruised toe caused by the bull stomping on it. |
"It took about a week before I felt OK,'' she said. "Usually, the adrenaline is pumping so much when it's happening you don't even feel it.''
Hodgson said riding bulls was a natural progression from horses. At one time, she said she and her brother, Gregory Jr., routinely broke horses, usually on the family's farm northeast of Niles.
"I thought, 'I've done that, so I'll try this (riding bulls),' '' she said.
But the first animal she rode was a goat, when she was 14 months old. To prove it, she displayed a picture of the achievement.
A part-time maintenance worker at Toefco Engineered Coating Systems in Niles, Hodgson said she travels just about every weekend to all parts of the country to ride bulls. Ultimately, she said she wants to become the top female bull rider in the world, but even then she isn't likely to win the kind of money picked up by male bull riders.
The current top female rider, Mandy Shipsky, of Joshua, Texas, has racked up just more than $1,800 this year, which is still considerably more than Hodgson's $271. The relatively paltry purses make it clear women bull riders engage in the sport not for fame or fortune but the sheer exhilaration.
That was also the case, Hodgson said, when she was in high school and she'd wrestle boys on the junior varsity team.
"She was one of the best-conditioned athletes I had and one of the hardest-working athletes I had,'' said Bob Galvin, her wrestling coach at Niles.
"She had one heck of a cross-face cradle (a combination pinning move).''
Hodgson said she gets her toughness from her dad, who also wrestled in high school.
She said she sometimes goes up against men in bull-riding competitions as well. Just like her wrestling days, she said she manages to hold her own.
"I've won money competing against guys,'' she said. "Usually, they're pretty happy for me.''
If there's anything she doesn't like about bull riding, she said it's women riders who give in to their emotions. She said she's put off by women who spout tears after winding up on their backsides.
"They shouldn't be riding,'' she said.
Unless maybe they're aboard goats.
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Wrestling Tournament to Hit Bloomington
The City of Bloomington is looking to pin down some major money next summer.
Preparations are already underway for the "Midwest National Wrestling Tournament" in early July. And the people heading up the special event say the tournament will bring in more people and a lot of money to the Twin Cities area.
“It’s going to be great for wrestling. Wesleyn and ISU have dropped wrestling so hopefully we can get enough interest where maybe they start to look at it again is just a fantastic event and we have the best coaches around,” says Mike Manahan Chairperson for the tournament.
The tournament will cover various divisions including: women's wrestling.