Williams Lake, B.C., bullfighter has no regrets after being injured while helping thrown rider

Cody Call from Williams Lake, B.C., is recovering from a dislocated shoulder after he stepped in to save a rider that was thrown off a bull in the Indoor Spring Classic Rodeo.

He works as a bullfighter, and it's his job to protect a fallen competitor.

Call has been competing in the sport for the last six years. He grew up in a rodeo family and made the transition after spending years playing hockey semi-professionally. 

Over the weekend, he was involved in a dramatic rescue of a rider at the Williams Lake rodeo. He told Daybreak Kamloops fill-in host, Doug Herbert about the experience.

The following transcript has been edited for clarity and length.

I know people are very familiar with bull riders, rodeo clowns, but bullfighter — most people will think sort of in Spain with a sword and a cape. What exactly is your job as a bullfighter?

So my job is a bullfighter, especially North American bullfighting 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 get away safely.

Calgary Stampede: Bull Fighter POV

10 years ago

Duration 0:37

Here is what the Bull Fighters see as they work with the Bull Riders at the Calgary Stampede.

Are you wearing some sort of protection there?

Yeah, it's kind of a cross between a bull rider vest and a motocross vest, then on the bottom, we basically wear modified football pads.

Take us back to the spring classic. Walk us through what you're up to there.

As the rider came off, he wasn't in a great spot. That bull has got quite a bit of what we like to call "snort" to him. He's fairly aggressive, and he was up against the fence in a not-so-safe position, and as he was coming in, I was left with kind of one choice: go or not go.

In my business, you can either be a cowboy or a coward; you can't be both. I chose to be a cowboy, and I jumped in front of the bull and, unfortunately, he won the contest and got the better of me and had me up against the fence for a little bit, but I like to think of it as all in a day's work. 

What happened to you? 

When you see a wreck of that magnitude, you expect to see some more bruising and maybe some more injuries, but I came out pretty lucky on my end with just a dislocated shoulder and a few fractures up in the shoulder area that the doctors here in Williams Lake got taken care of quite quickly.

I was lucky enough the rider came out unscathed for the most part. A few bumps and bruises. If he was wanting to, he was able to ride the next day, and that's really all that matters to me. 

And what about you? Will you be able to work anytime soon?

I am, unfortunately, out for the coming weeks — but God willing, we got a pretty good doctor team here in Williams Lake, and the medical team that was on-site at the event was excellent, so should only be a couple of weeks of downtime.

What made you want to get into this sport?

I was kind of born into it. My family runs a stock contracting company here in 150 Mile House, B.C., and we've helped produce rodeo events across B.C. Actually, we were a major contributor into putting this one on here in Williams Lake.

We really wanted to just focus on putting on a really safe and inclusive environment rodeo event, especially after last year with the shooting in Williams Lake [at the stampede] and some of the drama that was surrounding it.

I'm a third-generation Call cowboy. When I was about 18, I stepped up to the plate, and I fell in love pretty much right away, and I've never looked back.

 What's your relationship like with the bulls that you have to fight?

There's a very strong mutual respect. I like to think of it as brawn versus brains. They weigh a ton. I weigh 180 pounds. Their top speed at running speed is double that of a human, but I have 100 more IQ points, and I'm quite a bit shiftier, so I like to think of it as David versus Goliath.

I'm lucky enough to be around these animals every day, see how they're cared for, see the welfare of them. There's a mutual respect, and that there's nothing more that I appreciate in life than a good old fashioned big Brahma buckin' bull.