LETHBRIDGE – Aaron Roy could tell right away this fall was different.
“I knew something serious was wrong because I did lose feeling in my legs,” recalls Roy.
It was the 2013 Calgary Stampede. Roy, one of the top bull riders in Canada, had just started his ride on a 1700 pound bull named Gretzky. But when the animal caught its hip on the chute, Roy received an unnatural jolt and went flying off the back of the bull. Roy landed flat on his back, before Gretzky stepped directly on him.
“I was up tight against the chute with nowhere to go,” remembered Roy. “And when that bull came down he just kind of caught my legs and folded me in half.”
His back was fractured, and while he regained feeling in his legs, there were other issues. The question wasn’t whether he would ever ride again, it was whether he would ever walk.
“After that it kind of set in hard, just being rushed through everything in the hospital and everything,” said Roy. “And the next day I told myself that was the last bull I was going to get on.”
Roy’s wife was pregnant at the time, and the first prognosis meant he might never be able to pick up his first-born child. “I was initially told I wouldn’t be able to lift more than ten pounds,” he remembers. But that just served to motivate him to get back to healthy.
“Through physio and pushing myself that way, and just being able to walk around again, it was that motivation that kept me going,” says Roy.
Against large odds, he was able to walk again, and lift his new-born son, Axel. As time went on, the itch to get back on bulls started to burn.
First he was urged to sit on a bucking barrel by his students at a bull riding school. Then he eased onto practice bulls. And when all went well, his wife and his doctor both gave him their blessings to get back into riding.
On a special invite, 16 months after his accident, he not only entered – but won the Professional Bull Riders Canadian final last November. An incredible achievement considering the two rods and eight screws which are now permanently inserted in his spine.
“I feel exactly like I did before, it’s actually been pretty amazing recovery. I haven’t had no pain throughout the whole thing,” says Roy.
This year he’s taking on more of a workload. His season debut was a PBR event in Red Deer, followed by a ride Friday night in Lethbridge. He then flew to Fresno, California for a PBR Built Ford Tough event, the big leagues of the PBR circuit.
The 27-year-old product of Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan still hasn’t committed to a full schedule for 2015. For the time being, he’s just thankful to be back to the career he thought had been taken away.
“It means a lot to me and my family,” says Roy. “What I’ve overcome and to be back here riding, doing what I love, it’s just amazing.”
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