Groin injury sidelines rodeo veteran

Cody Ohl makes his living roping calves.

And he’s done pretty good at it over the years — five world championships, an allaround title, 17 appearances at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo and arena records across the continent.

The texan is 38-years-old and still capable of beating anybody on any given day.

But, on friday afternoon at the Ponoka Stampede, he couldn’t even crawl off his saddle after catching a black and white calf just 15 feet into the arena.

Ohl strained a groin muscle while roping his first round calf in the morning and barely made it back to his motor home, where he could ice the injury.

He planned to turn out of the second round—unless he drew the calf his travelling partner Shane Hanchey tied in 7.9 secondsinthemorninground.her number was 90 and she was the best heifer in the pen.

Sure enough, when the calves were drawn, Ohl got lucky and pulled No. 90. He couldn’t turn down the opportunity.

Catching the calf was obviously no problem. Bailing off his horse and running down the rope to tie the critter was another matter. Ohl simply cramped up, hunched forward and never made a move to leave the saddle.

Minutes later, in an interview, pain masking his face, Ohl said: “It hurt so bad I couldn’t even get off.”

He’s supposed to ropeat williams Lake, B.C., this afternoon, but instead will try to locate an acupuncturist to try to get some relief.

“My deal is I just need to get well, or at least get by, for rodeos next week at Livingston, Mont., and Cody, Wyo.,” Ohl said.

He’s familiar with groin injuries. In 2006 at the WNFR, he tied a calf in 6.7 seconds after nursing a strained groin for eight days.

After finishing sixth in the world standings last year, Ohl was invited to the Centennial of the Calgary Stampede, but turned it down.

He doesn’t like the stringent rules imposed on the calfroping competition.

“They’re adding judgment calls to our event to make it worse than it is,” he said of ropers being flagged out should a calf even be brought down to one knee.

“If we are flagged out, we’re made out to be the bad guy,” he said. “I don’t need to be riding in the arena as a six-time world champion and an announcer telling the fans I intentionally jerked a calf down.

“That doesn’t make me look good. I just have to go win my money in the States — or even the other rodeos up here. This is the first year i’ve been up here since my rookie year and these rodeos have gotten really good. I’ll keep coming up here, but Calgary is off my list.”

Ohl did win Calgary back in 1998 when the champion’s bonus was $50,000.

“Hey, I got a Stampede bronze,” he chuckled, “what else do I need.”