PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. -
Tanner Girletz is a Prairie farm boy, born and bred into a world of sweat, adrenalin and blood.
A chronicle of his injuries - past and present - reads like the injured reserve list for a football team: hyperextended elbow; torn anterior cruciate ligament; blown medial collateral ligament; meniscus - largely nonexistent.
"My knee is almost gone," Girletz admits, adding cheerfully, "If I don't land on my feet, it feels pretty good."
Welcome to the world of a professional bull rider, where injuries are pretty much expected.
"It's something that will likely hinder me when I'm older, but that's not why I signed up for the sport. If you're going to whine and complain, it's probably not the sport for you."
Girletz is 22, and this is his seventh year climbing onto the back of bulls and trying to hold on for the longest eight seconds in sport.
After two events this season, he holds the lead in the PBR (Professional Bull Riders Inc.) circuit standings, and a strong result in Prince Albert next week will help him pad that lead.
He won the first event in Brooks, Alta., and followed with a tie for the title March 21 in Winnipeg. He credits his strong effort out of the gate to two things.
First, he improved his conditioning.
"I really focused myself on bull riding all winter, and got back into shape. I'm feeling top-notch again."
Second, he's healthy. At least, as healthy as he can be - he's not wearing any braces and is no longer sore all the time.
The key to the conditioning, Girletz said, was some circuit training and regular riding of practice bulls in the quest to improve his performance.
In bull riding, there is no such thing as perfection, he said.
"There's no such thing as a perfect ride. Every time you get on, it gives you something to work on."
The circuit training included a lot of "push-ups, sit-ups and things like that. Lots of cardio."
At first glance, it might seem a little odd for a bull rider to work on cardiovascular conditioning. After all, that's more the domain of long-distance runners, hockey players and the like - but competitive cowboys are considered some of the best-conditioned athletes in the world.
Just hanging on for eight seconds of bovine-fuelled mayhem is intense, Girletz said.
"It's rare that you get off a bull and you're not breathing hard. It really strains the body... gets the motor running."
While there's some degree of allure to the fame and money a good rider can make, there's something basic, a passion and an adrenalin rush that still stirs in Girletz's soul every time he strides toward a chute and its ornery captive.
"I still get butterflies, just going to a practice pen," he admitted. "When you jump off a bull and know you defeated an animal that big, it's quite a feeling."
Add in the fan reaction and the result is intoxicating, he said.
"It makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up."
As long as the passion remains, Girletz will continue to compete.
"I told myself when I started that if that feeling went away when I pulled into a vent ... if that went away, I was going to hang it up and quit."
The Prince Albert PBR event runs April 17-18 at the Art Hauser Centre.
For tickets or more information, call the centre at 953-4848.
raise 'em and ride 'em
The Girletz family owns a bull ranch in Alberta, and interestingly, will enter bulls in the forthcoming Prince Albert PBR event.
Cowboys and bulls are randomly matched, which means Tanner Girletz could well find himself astride one of his family's animals.
There's no advantage if that happens, he said.
"Every bull ... you have to ride 'em the same."
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