A bullfighter in Williams Lake, British Columbia, has no remorse after being injured while helping to dispose of a rider

Cody Cole of Williams Lake, BC is recovering from a dislocated shoulder after he stepped in to save a rider who was thrown from a bull during the Indoor Spring Classic Rodeo.

He works as a bullfighter, whose job it is to protect the fallen rival.

Nida has been practicing this sport for six years. He was raised in a rodeo family and moved on after spending years playing hockey semi-professionally.

Over the weekend, he was involved in an amazing rescue of a racer at Williams Lake Rodeo. He says Dawn of Kamloops Alternate host Doug Herbert on the experience.

The following text has been edited for clarity Length.

I You know, people are familiar with bull riders, and rodeo clowns, but the bullfighter — most people would think of some kind in Spain with a sword and a cloak. What exactly does your job as a bullfighter consist of?

So my job is a bullfighter, especially since bullfighting in North America is probably a cross between a rodeo clown and a Spanish bullfighter. My job is to distract the bull and give the cowboy enough time to escape safely.

Are you wearing some kind of protection there?

Yes, it’s kind of a cross between a bull rider jacket and a motocross jacket and then we wear modified football liners in the basement.

Take us back to the classic spring. Explain to us what you intend to do there.

When the runner came out, he wasn’t in a great place. This bull has a lot of what we like to call a snort. He’s very aggressive, and he was facing the fence in a dangerous situation, and when he came, I had a choice: go or don’t go.

At my job, you can be either a cowboy or a coward; You can’t be both. I chose to be a cowboy and jumped in front of the bull, and unfortunately he won the contest, outdid me, and kind of got me hitting the fence kind of, but I like to think that’s all in a day’s work.

what happened to you?

When you see a wreck of this size you expect to see more bruising and maybe more injury, but I was very lucky on my end with only a dislocated shoulder and a few fractures in the chest area. The shoulder that the doctors here at Williams Lake treated fairly quickly.

I was fortunate that the pilot escaped largely unscathed. There are some bumps and bruises. If he wanted to, he could have raced the next day, and that’s all I really care about.

And you? Will you soon be able to work?

I’m unfortunately absent for the next few weeks – but God willing we have a very good team of doctors here at Williams Lake, and the medical team that was on hand at the event was excellent, so this should only be a couple of weeks.

What made you want to play this sport?

I was kind of born into it. My family runs a contracting business here in 150 Mile House, BC, and we’ve helped run rodeo events all over British Columbia. In fact, we were instrumental in organizing this here at Williams Lake.

We really wanted to just focus on creating a really safe and inclusive environmental rodeo event, especially after last year with Shooting at Williams Lake [at the stampede] and the drama that surrounded it.

I’m a third generation cowboy. When I was about 18, I fell in love almost instantly and never looked back.

What is your relationship with the bulls you fight?

There is a very strong mutual respect. I like to think of it as muscles versus brains. They weigh a ton. I weigh 180 lbs. My max running speed is twice as fast as a human, but I still have 100 IQ points, and I’m a bit variable, so I like to think David vs. Goliath.

I have the chance to meet these animals every day, to see how well we take care of them, to see their welfare. There is a mutual respect, and that there is nothing I value more in life than the Brahma-Taurus’ big prey personality.