CHIEF JOSEPH DAYS
Wallowa County Chieftain
A8
Wednesday, August 3, 2022
Clowning around: He also protects bull riders
Rodeo clown
keeps crowd
entertained,
riders safe
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
JOSEPH — A rodeo
clown is not there just to
entertain the crowd. He’s
also a vital part of the crew
there to protect the contes-
tants from the roughstock
once they’re thrown.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Rodeo clown John Harrison saddles Gus before the
Wednesday, July 27, 2022, family night of the 76th Chief
Joseph Days Rodeo. In addition to his clowning, Harrison
entertains the crowd with trick riding.
Battling bulls
“When it comes to bull
riding, I go from rodeo
clown to barrel man,” said
John Harrison, who has
worked as clown and bar-
rel man for the past three
Chief Joseph Days Rodeos.
“The barrel is an island of
safety for the cowboy. It’s
an aluminum can that’s got
padding on the outside for
the bull and padding on the
inside for me. My job is
to distract the bull if a bull
rider gets bucked oû toward
the middle of the arena and
he can’t make a run for the
fence, he runs to me.
“I will swat the side of the
barrel to get the bull’s atten-
tion to get the bull to come
to the barrel. When he goes
and hits the barrel, the bull
rider will take oû running
and that lets him get away
from the situation.”
Harrison recognizes the
diû culties bull riders face
and does his best to assist.
Unlike with saddle broncs or
bareback broncs, there’s no
pickup man.
“With a bull, you’ve got
one option and that’s getting
bucked oû ,= he said. <You
might let go, but you’re
still getting bucked oû . &
You don9t step oû gently.
You just hope that you tuck
and roll good enough that
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
John Harrison, rodeo clown and barrel man, pretends he doesn’t know what to do during his
trick-riding exhibition Saturday, July 30, 2022, during the fi nal night of the 76th Chief Joseph
Days Rodeo in Joseph.
you don’t get hurt.”
Of course, Harrison’s not
alone helping the bull rid-
ers. He works closely with
bullû ghters Chuck Swisher
and Nathan Harp, who have
worked the CJD for several
years.
“For the most part, espe-
cially with the bullû ghters
we have here, they are awe-
some,” he said.
Still an entertainer
The clown/barrel man
also is an entertainer, though
he’s not quite a stand-up
comic.
<The diû erence is with a
stand-up comic, he gets on
the stage and gets to go for
an hour and not get inter-
rupted,” Harrison said. “But
as a barrel man, you might
have a cowboy nod his head
and now you’ve got to run
for the contestant. Getting in
that rhythm is tough. & But
the main part of my job is
to entertain and to have fun
with the crowd and fun with
the announcer. Me and him
will banter back and forth.
The entertainment side is
what the clown is for.”
One of his major shticks
is his trick riding. He has
Gus, a 26-year-old paint he’s
had for 24 years.
“I got him when he was
2,= Harrison said. <His û rst
show was when he was 3
and he bucked me oû in the
grand entry. They say God
gives you one good dog, one
good horse and one good
woman and I’m waiting on
my dog.”
One of the acts he does
with Gus involves banter
with the announcer, who
will announce a world-fa-
mous trick rider who
doesn’t show up.
www.Wallowa.com
“It all depends on how my
arm’s feeling. I got stepped
on, so I’m on the fence at the
JOSEPH — When it moment to see how I feel,”
comes to getting astride he said Wednesday. “There
1,500 pounds of violent, are a lot of factors that come
angry bull and hoping to stay into play.”
there for eight sec-
He said that
onds, Derek Kolbaba
during the Cheyenne
has just one thing to
ride, “A bull stepped
say:
on the back of my
<You9ve got to
arm, so my arm’s all
love bull riding,”
swelled up and pretty
he said during a
black and blue. That
telephone interview
makes it a little tough
Kolbaba
Wednesday, July 27.
to move it at the
Kolbaba, a three-
moment.”
time winner of the bull rid-
It turned out well for Kol-
ing at the Chief Joseph Days baba, as he ended up the only
Rodeo going into this year’s bull rider to hang on for the
competition and a many- full eight seconds Saturday
time participant, was driv- and won the buckle for the
ing home from a competition event.
in Cheyenne, Wyoming. It
Personal history
was that competition — and
for CJD
his recovery from it — that
Although he resides in
determined whether he actu-
ally would be up to compet- Walla Walla, Washington,
ing during Saturday’s bull Kolbaba considers Joseph
his hometown.
riding in Joseph.
“There’s quite a bit of his-
tory at that rodeo,” he said.
“Joseph is probably always
going to be my hometown.”
His parents once lived
here and his grandmother,
Darlene Turner, still does.
In fact, that makes Kol-
baba the great-grandson of
CJD founder and original
roughstock contractor Har-
ley Tucker. The û rst CJD
was held in 1946 on the East
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
udly
Pro onsore d b y
Sp
OF
THE
ev
Congratulations to eted Chief Joseph
mpl
in the recently co . The annual event
od
Days R eo
27,000
paid out nearly $1 tors.
to the competi
Family friendly
Harrison makes sure his
Dad’s footsteps as a clown/
barrel man.
“I’ve always joked that
we’ve traveled enough that
they’re going to want a job
where they can walk to
work,” he said.
But Addy is embark-
ing on a line of entertain-
ment of her own. She inter-
views rodeo contestants
from a kid’s perspective
rather than about the actual
competition.
“I ask them things like,
‘What’s your favorite place
to go?’ or ‘What’s your
favorite candy?’ or some-
thing — the fun questions,”
she said.
Caz said he hopes to one
day ride saddle broncs.
“It’s safer than bull rid-
ing and bareback riding and
easier on your body and I
want to do something with
the roughstock,” he said.
Coming to Joseph is
always a big treat for the
Harrisons.
“We love this commu-
nity. There are great peo-
ple,” John said. “It’s the
salt-of-the-Earth-type folks
here. Farmers and ranch-
ers and people like that, the
common-sense-type folks.
We love it here, not to men-
tion the beauty of the land.”
Bull rider doubted he’d recover enough to ride
VISIT US ON THE WEB AT:
S RODEO
CHIEF JOSEPH D er A yo Y ne involved
“The announcer’s like,
‘John, did you go get him?
I was supposed to go to the
airport and I screwed up9 &
so they have me û ll in for
him. & Then I do every-
thing you’re not supposed
to do on a horse — I hang
upside down, run beside him
and at the end, I do what
they call split the neck.”
He also does vaults like
they did in the days of the
Pony Express, shoulder
stands and Roman riding —
standing up on two horses at
a gallop.
He’s not sure how much
longer he’ll continue the
trick riding.
“I joke that at 19, trick
riding was easy,” he said.
“Now at 43, it’s getting a bit
more diû cult.=
clown costume is not the
spooky stuû of Hollywood
and social media. He doesn’t
cover his entire face with
makeup or use a fright wig.
“On social media, people
think it’s fun to dress up as
clowns and scare people,”
he said. “That’s something I
try to avoid because I want
to be friendly for kids.”
Indeed, he has a fam-
ily-friendly act largely
because he takes his own
family on the road with him
during the summer months.
His wife, Carla, is one of his
biggest supporters.
“My wife was my best
coach, she9d say, 8You9ve
got to slow down,’ (to be
more audible),” he said.
“I’m from Southeast Okla-
homa and I’ve got a fat
tongue and my redneck
ways, the words all get run-
ning together. But she’s my
best coach and she’ll get me
to slow down on my acts a
little bit — my one-liners,
I’ll try to hit the punch line
there and try to slow them
down. Also, a good high-end
microphone is important.”
They have three kids:
daughter Addy, 14; son Caz,
12; and daughter Charlee, 6.
He said none of the three
seems inclined to follow
Moraine above Wallowa
Lake, where participants and
viewers alike rode horses to
see the action.
Of course, now it’s held
at the Harley Tucker Memo-
rial Arena just oû of Joseph9s
Main Street.
Tucker died in 1960, so
the 26-year-old Kolbaba
never got to meet him.
“I’m not sure my mom
(Sandi Rowe) ever got to
meet him, either,” he said.
It’s his job
Kolbaba said he’s glad to
be able to make a living at
doing what he loves.
“It’s my full-time job, if
you can call it a job,” he said.
“I’ve been pretty fortunate
to make a living at what I
love at such a young age and
to pay my bills and create a
life for myself and my fam-
ily. Pretty much everything I
have and I own is from bull
riding.”
His family consists of
wife Aymie and a baby girl
they have on the way.
Although he doesn’t
expect their daughter will
want to take after Dad, Aymie
is accepting of the inherent
risks in bull riding.
“It’s one of those things,”
Kolbaba said. “She probably
thinks the same as my mom
thought about it. But for me,
this is what I’ve loved and
wanted to do since I was a
kid. It’s pretty much all I’ve
ever known and all I’ve ever
worked for. & At the end of
the day, she enjoys getting to
watch me do what I love.”
A dangerous job
Kolbaba acknowledges
the risks involved and has
had his share of injuries, even
though he tries to brush it oû .
“I’ve been pretty fortu-
nate, for the most part,” he
said. “I’ve had a few broken
bones, I broke my leg when I
was younger and had quite a
few surgeries on that; broke
my jaw, tore up my knee
pretty good, collapsed lung.
Other than that, I’ve been
pretty lucky. You9ve got to
pick your battles.”
But he knows not all
injured bull riders are able to
come back.
“Unfortunately. It’s a very
dangerous sport. You9ve got
to accept that before you
do it,= he said. <You9ve got
friends who’ve been injured
enough where they couldn’t
ever ride bulls again or to
the point where they don’t
ever get to go home. You feel
pretty lucky when you do.”
Still, Kolbaba was look-
ing forward to Saturday night
when the bulls were turned
loose.
“I hope so,” he said.
“I’m just playing it day by
day to see if I’m going to
Joseph or not.”