OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Wright:
Continued from Page A1
He’s also the first all-round
winner since Lewis Field in
1990 to earn all of his all-round
money in the rough stock events,
and the first bull rider since
Kenny Stanton (bulls, bareback)
in 1970.
Wright already has punched
his ticket to the National Finals
Rodeo in December in both of
his events.
A sterling season
Wright has won the all-around
title at 24 rodeos this season,
including the Caldwell Night
Rodeo, the Washington State
Fair Pro Rodeo in Puyallup, the
St. Paul Rodeo and now Pendle-
ton. He’s also won 10 bull riding
and five saddle bronc titles.
He couldn’t tell you half of
what he’s won, nor does he care
to.
“My goal is to stay on every
bull and every horse,” he
said. “I never think about the
all-around.”
Wright started his week in
Pendleton with two days at the
Xtreme Bulls Tour Final, at
which he finished second.
“It was good fun,” he said.
“I got on good stuff and got to
hang around there for a couple
of days.”
The Pendleton Round-Up
featured the best of the best Sept.
17-18. There were no easy days.
“The broncs and the bulls are
harder to do because they are
so stacked right now,” Wright
said. “I like them both equally
the same. There’s nothing more
rewarding than making a good
ride on something no one else
has. If I do well, the all-round
comes with it.”
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Stetson Wright, of Milford, Utah, tips his hat to the crowd while rid-
ing a victory lap around the Pendleton Round-Up Arena on Satur-
day, Sept. 18, 2021 after winning All-Around Cowboy at the Pend-
leton Round-Up.
In the midst of the compe-
tition, Wright finds himself up
against some of the most elite
saddle bronc riders in the PRCA
— his brothers and uncles.
His older brothers Rusty and
Ryder competed at Pendleton, as
did his uncles Jesse and Spencer.
Ryder led the saddle bronc world
standings until Stetson won the
title Sept. 18. Rusty finished
third, while Ryder did not make
two qualifying rides.
In the bulls, he was one of just
two men to ride two bulls.
No matter what event he’s in,
his brothers have his back. They
help him get ready in the chute,
East Oregonian
and their voices are the only ones
he hears during his 8-second
rides.
It’s their support, and the
healthy competition they have
with one another that make the
Wrights so dominant.
“The big thing is traveling
with winners,” Stetson said.
“I’m always in a truck no matter
where I go, with Rusty, Ryder,
Jesse, Spencer and Ky Hamilton.
I don’t get in a truck with losers.”
The Wright boys got their
start at home, learning from
their dad, Cody, who won the
Pendleton saddle bronc title in
2010.
“We want to match our dad,”
Stetson Wright said. “If we are
doing good, it’s because he has
something to do with it. If you
are coming out of a slump, he
has something to do with it. He is
the backbone of our bronc riding
careers.”
Cody Wright, who hasn’t
competed in a couple years,
typically watches his boys and
brothers compete on the Cowboy
Channel. He also coordinates
their schedules.
“We don’t talk bronc riding
too much at home,” Wright said.
“He’s always proud and he’s
good about telling us. There will
never be another like him.”
Unlike most guys who have
punched their ticket to the NFR
and are headed home until
December, the Wright boys
competed Sept. 19 at Marysville,
California. They will go home
for a couple of days, then head
back out to hit as many rodeos
as they can by Sept. 30.
“None of us have to go
anywhere,” Wright said. “We
want to go.”
That’s how champions are
made.
Pinky:
Continued from Page A1
“I rode him to the whistle, and
then I went sky and up in the air
and 40 feet forwards,” Christo-
pher said. “And I think I won all
of $25.”
Christopher said he did bare-
back and saddle bronc and a few
bulls before deciding to become
a clown “to be in front of them
instead of on top of them.”
It was the early 1950s when
Christopher started his clown-
ing career in the small town of
Yoncalla in Douglas County.
When the rodeo had no bulls, he
asked the organizer if he needed
any help with entertainment and
in return got his entrance fees
covered.
There was one lady, he said,
who owned about two-thirds of
the businesses in Yoncalla and
had brought her grandson to the
rodeo who was crying and whin-
ing and bawling.
“I started going by and I’d get
up on a fencepost and sit there and
he’d shoot me with his cap gun
and I’d fall off and stuff,” Chris-
topher said, “and pretty soon,
before the second day was over
with, why he was a-laughing and
having a good time and his grand-
mother was enjoying the show.”
Christopher would spend the
next 30 some odd years traveling
around Oregon to rodeos, work-
ing as a bullfighter and rodeo
clown, ingraining himself into
Oregon rodeo life. It made him
happy to help others have a good
time, forget their troubles and
enjoy the show, he said.
“If you just make them laugh
for 10 minutes and forget their
troubles,” he said, “why it was
well worth it.”
Christopher said it was differ-
ent then versus nowadays, where
rodeo clowns, bullfighters and
Case:
Continued from Page A1
There were public events,
movies and football games he
attended. Still, he said he was
careful.
He does not know where
he got sick, but he does
remember the first days of
the illness. COVID-19 began
gently for him. At first, he
thought it was allergies.
But then, his symptoms
strengthened. He decided to
take an at-home COVID-19
test, just as a precaution. He
was stunned when his test
results were positive.
“I was blown away. I
thought it was wrong at first,”
he said.
Sure, he had a fever, runny
nose and sore throat, but he
could still smell and taste.
The test must be wrong, he
thought. How could he have
A9
Police:
Continued from Page A1
Jackson proposed the idea for the
e-teams several years ago. Back then,
police were swamped during Round-Up,
at times trying to break up 20-person bar
fights by themselves.
Since creating the units, adding as
many as 30 law enforcement officers from
surrounding agencies to patrol the town,
crime has taken a noticeable downturn,
multiple law enforcement officials said. The
goal of the e-teams, the officials said, is to
de-escalate situations and prevent arrests.
“Round-Up’s different now,” said
Howard Bowen, a Pendleton police detec-
tive. “And I think part of that is how it’s
been policed over the years.”
Howard’s team calmed disputes, helped
intoxicated people who had hurt them-
selves, gave out stickers to children and
chatted with locals. The East Oregonian
tagged along with them to see what a Friday
night at the Pendleton Round-Up is like for
police now.
There to help
The night kicked off quickly.
Police wandered through the crowds
outside of Hamley Steakhouse & Saloon
and found a clearly intoxicated man who
appeared to have fallen and hit his head.
Officers stood with him for several
minutes as people nearby danced to
“Great Balls of Fire” and nearby drunkards
shouted obscenities toward the collapsed
man. An ambulance arrived and medics and
e-team members moved the man several
feet before he fell back in a foldable chair
and received medical attention. Eventually,
they got him into the ambulance.
The team hustled about a block toward
a nearby bench and checked on a woman
who also had been drinking and fell and
hurt her nose. She didn’t require medical
attention and left.
A woman who appeared to be work-
ing crowd management near Hamley later
approached police alongside a much taller
man. She reported the man, who appeared
to be intoxicated, had been harassing
women inside. Police separated the two.
The man proceeded to make a lengthy
attempt to describe why he was in the
right. Police did not cite or arrest him, but
throughout the evening, the clearly frus-
trated man would run into police several
times at multiple bars and attempt to make
his case clear each time. Bowen appeared
tired of it, tilting his head up toward the
sky. The team moved away.
Keeping problems in check
Kellie Ridenour/Contributed Photo
Retired rodeo clown Gerald “Pinky” Christopher faces a bull in 1954 at the Sisters Rodeo in Sisters.
entertainment are separate. Back
then, “you were the rodeo clown,
you were the bullfighter and you
were part of the entertainment,
too.”
“He was a prankster, oh my
god I could tell you a million
stories,” said Robert Cosner, a
retired member of the Deschutes
County Sheriff’s Office who has
known Christopher for more than
40 years.
One of these included building
a washtub on a saddle and adding
a sack of flour to the bottom.
They’d sprinkle flour on Chris-
topher, and he’d hop in the tub on
top of a bucking horse with his
legs poking out. He’d get bucked
out and flour would go every-
where, Cosner said. He strapped
heavy thick sponges to his back
and the back of his legs to help
avoid getting too banged up.
“Sometimes you get the
wrong way, you know, eating a
little dirt,” Christopher said, “but
usually you tried to land on your
feet.”
Christopher did anything he
the disease after taken many
precautions to avoid it? He
had never had it before.
The day after the test,
his condition worsened. His
senses of taste and smell
began failing, and other
symptoms grew worse.
He finally had to admit he
had COVID-19, and he called
his doctor. Morris explained
his symptoms to his doctor,
which convinced him he had
the disease. The best thing he
could do would be rest and
monitor his own health, and
visit the hospital if his condi-
tion became much worse.
So that is what he did. He
stayed in bed, and he began
taking over-the-counter
medication and vitamins —
NyQuil, zinc, vitamins C, D
and B. He recently started
taking dexamethasone and it
has helped quite a bit, he said.
Still, his illness continues.
Kellie Ridenour/Contributed Photo
Retired rodeo clown Gerald “Pinky” Christopher poses in full clown
attire with a group of children in 1973 at the Deschutes County Fair
Rodeo in Redmond.
could think of to get people hoot-
ing and hollering and enjoying the
show.
“Whatever you can come up
with to keep the people enter-
tained,” he said.
Even now, at 87-years-old,
Vaccinations
remain key
Fiumara explained that
breakthrough cases for any
disease “occur for a variety
of reasons.” Waning immu-
nity is one cause for disease,
which may be a contributing
factor to COVID-19 break-
throughs. This may necessi-
tate booster doses, as is done
with tetanus, or a series of
vaccinations, as is done for
measles and rubella.
“Other reasons that immu-
nity could wane include age
and medical conditions or
medications that suppress the
effectiveness of the immune
system,” Fiumara said.
W hile researchers
continue to study the disease,
Fiumara recommended
vaccinations. Breakthrough
illnesses, if they occur, are
generally less severe than are
regular cases.
“Breakthrough cases tend
Christopher never misses a rodeo,
according to his daughter, Kellie
Ridenour. He still loves making
others laugh.
“I enjoyed it, the people
enjoyed it,” he said. “If they were
happy, I was happy.”
to have much less severe
symptoms, or no symptoms at
all,” he said. “While prevent-
ing all illness is always a goal,
the main function of vacci-
nations is to prevent severe
illness and death.”
The Oregon Health
Authority repor t from
Sept. 16 showed from Sept.
5 to 11 there were 14,046
cases of COVID-19 in the
state. Unvaccinated cases
accounted for 81.3% of that
total.
In addition to getting a
vaccine, Fiumara recom-
mended wearing masks in
crowds. People should be
especially careful if they
are older or immunocom-
promised. They should stay
home if they have even minor
symptoms, and people should
wash hands often.
At some point, he said, we
will be free from restrictions
and masking, though this
Police proceeded to patrol Pendleton’s
nightlife. They wandered through crowded
bars, including Crabby’s and the Rainbow
Cafe, saying hello to locals and cracking
jokes. They walked through the carnival,
giving stickers to children along the way.
Many patrons thanked the officers for being
there; others looked toward them nervously
and rushed by.
At one point, police came upon a man
who was urinating on a downtown build-
ing in front of his friends. Bowen shined
a flashlight on him and asked him to turn
around. The man appeared scared. But
Bowen said he didn’t plan to arrest him.
He simply asked the man to go to the public
restroom a few blocks away.
“I want them to have a good time,” said
Bowen. “I just don’t want them to have too
good of a time.”
In their idle time, the four law enforce-
ment officials stood on sidewalks, talking
among themselves about hiking trips,
concerts and their favorite meat in town.
They stopped for a snack and water break
after long hours on their feet. At least two
of them commented at one point about how
slow the night had been and how few people
were at some of the bars.
In addition to from Bowen, there was
Calvin Meade, a Umatilla County Sheriff’s
Office detective; Joshua Paullus, a Umatilla
County Corrections parole and probation
officer; and Riley Studebaker, a Hermiston
police patrol corporal.
Bowen and Paullus said they have seen
problems decrease during Round-Up night-
life in recent years. Bowen attributed that
to the emphasis patrol units, saying he has
responded to fewer fights and drunk driv-
ing incidents. At the end of the night, they
helped close out the bars.
“You see the good and the bad,” said
Paullus, “rather than all the bad.”
depends on how the virus
adapts and if a more deadly
variant shows up.
“Our chance at eradicat-
ing this was in the early days
and we have missed that,”
Fiumara said. “Most likely
this will become like the flu,
where it cycles in and out
of susceptible populations
and others are left mostly
untouched.”
And the best hope, he
said, to “achieve decreased
impacts” from COVID-19 is
to increase vaccinations.