The cards have been stacked against Lawton Bond his whole life. But the 19-year-old bull rider from Tarkenton Prairie, Texas, has made a habit of defying the odds, and now, his will to survive and achieve has paid off in grand fashion.
Known affectionately as "Bud," the PRCA permit holder served notice to the rodeo world by winning the Texas Circuit Finals aggregate title in Waco, Texas (Jan. 6-8) to earn his PRCA card and a trip to the Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo (DNCFR) in Pocatello, Idaho, in March.
The ironic thing is, he shouldn't even be here today.
Bond was born, fittingly, on Halloween in 1985 with only one fully developed lung and a respiratory condition called Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), the leading cause of lower respiratory tract infections in infants and young children. He became seriously ill on his first Thanksgiving Day, then spent the better part of his first three years at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas.
Bond spent that time in a pediatric unit with 19 other seriously ill babies. He was one of only three who lived.
"He's been a fighter his whole life," said his mother, Sheri Bond.
Bond's medical fight continued through his childhood, as the experimental drugs that were used to treat his RSV caused an inner ear fungus that robbed him of his hearing. Eight ear operations, beginning at the age of 8, have left him deaf in his right ear and with only 50-percent hearing in his left.
"The medicine they gave him (for the RSV) was experimental and they basically used him as a guinea pig, but we figured we were going to lose him anyway, so we just chose to use him as a guinea pig," Sheri Bond said.
So, Bond couldn't hear the whistle at the end of the third round in Waco that left him as the only cowboy to ride all three of his bulls and crowned him as the event's champion.
"I count in my head and tell the bullfighters that I'm deaf so they can wave at me when it's time to get off the bull," said Lawton, who chooses not to wear a hearing aid. "I don't hear anything when I'm riding, but when I finish I hear pretty much everything."
Naturally, the odds of him winning the circuit finals weren't in Bond's favor by any means. After qualifying for the three-day event by ranking seventh in the circuit standings, Bond developed a cold after arriving in Waco. A simple cold may not have been a heavy burden for most cowboys, but for Bond, it was anything but simple.
"I had to use my mom's inhaler so I could breathe," said Bond, who earned $3,935 for the victory.
Bond's win was a major triumph for his entire family, including his two brothers, sister and stepsister. But it's his mother who has been Bond's greatest supporter and fan along the way, and he attributes much of his success to her.
"My mom's my coach and my best friend," said the 5-5, 150-pound Texan. "I can tell her anything in the whole wide world, and I think that's because of what I went through as a baby."
His bull riding career began auspiciously, just as his life did. Bond cried the first time he sat on a bull at the Lyle Sankey Rodeo School in New Caney, Texas, in 2000, leaving his parents thinking they had wasted the $350 registration fee. But just as he had from the start, Bond rebounded and persevered, eventually being named the school's top student.
The next obstacle for Bond came later in 2000, when he broke his right leg in 16 places at a rodeo in Lufkin, Texas, putting him out of action for some time. Despite that injury, and a couple of broken noses and ligament damage in his riding arm, Bond quickly excelled in the arena.
He went on to compete in high school rodeo at Tarkenton High School, winning the 2003 reserve bull riding championship and the 2004 bareback riding and bull riding reserve titles. His motto and strategy is to compete against the bulls he rides, not the other cowboys, a mantra that has paid off. The Texas Circuit Finals aggregate title was the 33rd championship buckle in Bond's growing collection.
Bond hasn't let his medical traumas deter him from achieving his goals and chasing his dreams, and there's no doubt his ordeals have toughened and molded him into a fearless professional. He knows nothing a bull could do to him could be worse that what he's fought through so far in his young life.
"I'm not afraid of anything," Bond said. "Nothing scares me. I could probably stand in the road and let a Mack truck pass me going 100 miles per hour and I'd laugh at it."
It's that attitude that has taken him to the heights he now enjoys, but Bond's list of goals for the future is nearly as long as his medical file.
"I would like to go to the (Wrangler) NFR this year, win rookie of the year and either win the world or aggregate title," said Bond, who plans to compete full-time in 2005.
The odds of him achieving those goals are, once again, stacked against the teenager, but defying odds is something that has become second nature to him. What the future holds for Bond is anyone's guess, but chances are he's not done surprising people.
"He's always been the kind of kid that's bounced right back," Sheri Bond said. "I never really thought he'd go this far with it, I really didn't, but I'm very proud of him. We'll be proud of him whether he succeeds or not. He's made us so proud by going this far. He has come a long way."