It's only April, but roughstock hand Chad Eubank is already thinking about July.
One thought keeps going through his mind: "If I can only stay healthy through July, then everything will be all right."
That's been tough to do for the 24-year-old, three-event cowboy from Cleburne, Texas.
Last year, during the first round at Cheyenne (Wyo.) Frontier Days, Eubank's bull rope came loose and he was pulled down, smacking his head against the bull's horn. The blow knocked Eubank unconscious. But rendering Eubank senseless wasn't enough for the ornery bovine. He roughed up the limp cowboy as he lay in the arena dirt. The injuries Eubank suffered ended his season.
If that was all there was to the July jinx, Eubank would be happy. But it isn't.
On July 2, 2000, Eubank attempted to ride the notorious bull Dodge Durango at Mesquite, Texas. The bull ripped up Eubank's shoulder, forcing him to undergo season-ending surgery.
On July 2, 2001, Eubank was in Durango, Colo., and the saddle bronc horse he was riding threw him off, cracking a bone in his ankle.
"Isn't that weird?" Eubank asked.
No, that's just Eubank's July jinx at work. But for now, Eubank is riding high, producing one of the hottest streaks of his career.
Eubank won the bull riding title at the Arcadia All-Florida Championship Rodeo (March 12-14), posting a score of 87 points on Salt River Rodeo's Freak Boy to pocket $2,634. That same weekend, Eubank finished second in the bull riding at the Okeechobee (Fla.) Cattlemen's Spring Rodeo and finished tied for fifth in the bareback riding, earning checks for another $1,256.
Eubank wasn't through, though. He tied for first in the bareback riding with Chip Dees and won the bull riding at the Lake City (Fla.) Rodeo (March 19-21), earning an additional $1,844.
Eubank's success has him ranked 48th in the Jack Daniel's World Bull Riding Standings the first time he's been ranked in the top 50. Needless to say, Eubank is having the time of his life.
"This is great," Eubank said. "I hope it means I've got things turned around."
Success in the rodeo arena has been almost non-existent for Eubank since last July's encounter in Cheyenne. "I didn't get on a bull or a bucking horse or anything until January," Eubank said. "That's a long time."
And when Eubank did start riding again, he didn't enjoy much success.
"I placed in a round at Fort Worth, but other than that, all I had gotten were day checks."
But that began to change when Eubank started a swing through Florida. He arrived a couple of weeks early determined to take some advice offered by his father, Jake.
"He said I needed to get on some practice bulls," Eubank said. 'I hadn't done that since high school. But I went out and got on some of them. It helped me. It built my confidence back up."
Eubank, in fact, was confident enough in Arcadia that when the flankman offered to give him a scouting report on Freak Boy, the cowboy didn't want to listen.
"I don't really care to know what a bull does," Eubank said. "I like to know what they look like so I know which bull to put my rope on. When the flankman started to tell me what he was going to do, I just walked away. I didn't mean to be rude or anything, but I'm one of them guys, if somebody's going to tell me what a bull's going to do, I'm going to expect it. And it never works out like that."
Eubank's career hasn't worked out like he hoped it would - yet. Injuries have kept him from reaching his full potential.
"It's kind of weird. Every year I get hurt and it leaves me out the rest of the year," Eubank said. "This year I'm just trying to stay healthy."
Despite the injuries and the resulting frustrations, Eubank has no desire to give up on rodeo. In fact, he plans to stick with it until he proves his talent.
"If it weren't for rodeo, I'd be a different person," Eubank said. "Growing up and doing the youth rodeos and high school stuff, I got a lot of publicity for it. Sometimes they'd read a news article about me over the school's intercom.
"Not only did it embarrass me, but it also got me thinking, 'These people are out there learning about me. I'd better straighten up and be a good kid.' I didn't want people looking bad at me. I pretty much changed my life and started walking the right road."
And now, he hopes to take that road to success in ProRodeo.
"I don't think I've begun to do what I've set out to do yet," he said.
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