Bareback Riders Battle Back to Take Center Stage at Rodeo Corpus Christi
By: Kendra Santos
Bull riding has been declared the most dangerous sport on earth. But no event is more brutal on the body than bareback riding. And the two headliners in performance one of Rodeo Corpus Christi’s Progressive Round at American Bank Center—Cole Franks and RC Landingham—are living proof. Both have battled back from career-threatening injuries to be here at this week’s $545,000 beachside Buc Days, and with 88.5 and 88 points, respectively, have now advanced to Sunday’s Showdown Round.
Cole, who’s the son of three-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo saddle bronc rider Bret Franks, broke his back at the 2017 International Finals Youth Rodeo in Shawnee, Oklahoma, when at 16 he was smashed in the chute in the saddle bronc riding. He shattered his foot in the fall of 2018 when another saddle bronc flipped onto his left side about halfway through a ride and took Cole’s left foot down with him. It may or may not be a coincidence that Cole chose to focus on a different event than his dad, who’s his rodeo coach at Clarendon (Texas) College, where they also live. Truth is, Cole almost threw in the towel on his bareback riding career before it really even got off the ground.
“I almost quit the bareback riding going into high school,” said Cole, who’s the 2021 National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association’s Southwest Region All-Around and Bareback Riding Champ and will compete at the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper, Wyoming, next month. “I qualified for the 2015 National Junior High Finals in Des Moines, Iowa, the first year they added the bareback steer riding event, and I couldn’t ride a stick horse. I was defeated and thought pursuing the bareback riding was pointless for me. But I got talked into getting on a few more just for the fun of it, and now I’m sure glad I did.”
Rodeo Corpus Christi is Cole’s World Champions Rodeo Alliance debut. The sophomore ag business major plans to transfer to Missouri Valley College in Marshall, Missouri, which happens to be the hometown of bareback riding hotshots Tim O’Connell and Jess Pope, in the fall. As iron sharpens iron, that’ll come in handy for young Franks, who’d never heard of Dakota Rodeo’s Airmail before he racked up 88.5 points on the bucker’s back last night.
“I looked him up and found out he’s a pretty good horse,” said Cole, who’s still just 20, and has an older saddle bronc riding brother named Clint after Hall of Famer Clint Johnson. “And he was really good here. So yes, I’m glad I hung in there in the bareback riding—for the thrill of it, eight seconds at a time. Like that Chris LeDoux song says, something like, ‘Eight seconds in the arena is better than a lifetime in the stands.’
“This is my first WCRA rodeo, and I feel like they’re really onto something here. They’re expanding rodeo by giving us extra money to win. I only had to nominate one college rodeo to get here, and we don’t have to pay entry fees when we show up. That’s a new concept for cowboys, and it’s pretty cool.”
Landingham, of Northern California’s remote Hat Creek, qualified for back-to-back NFRs in 2016-17. But he’s been to hell and back recovering from three surgeries on his left (free arm) shoulder to return to riding again.
“I had the first surgery right after the 2017 NFR in January of 2018, then took that whole year off,” said Landingham, who’s 30 now. “I came back and rodeoed, but by July 2019, my free arm was dislocating in the middle of rides.”
RC married his bride, Bliss, in August 2019, then had a second free-arm shoulder surgery that fall. Sadly, it took a third operation in February 2020 to get the job done. Meanwhile, Landingham worked construction to make ends meet. He started virtual training with Doug Champion, who’s the fitness-guru brother of bareback rider Richmond Champion, in the fall of 2020, and has a workout regimen of sport-specific exercises on top of those that maximize his overall fitness. Landingham’s been back at it full steam ahead since February of this year and is pretty happy about it.
“It’s really a relief,” said RC, who travels with fellow Californians Clayton Biglow and Cash Wilson. “There were a lot of days I doubted I’d ever be back. I’m mostly thankful to my wife, who made me give it another try. Opportunities like this one here in Corpus Christi are a big reason I wanted to come back. Bareback riding’s a tough event, so getting on a minimal amount of horses for a maximum amount of money makes sense to us. We take a beating, so not having to get on a bunch of horses to win a bunch of money means a lot to a bareback rider.”
Another highlight from last night’s first performance one over at American Bank Center has to be second-generation bull rider Parker Breding twisting Hard Times for 86 points, and as the Lone Ranger to make the whistle being winner-take-all of the $7,000 up for grabs each night in each roughstock event. Breding, who’s just coming off of a record fourth RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo win down in Florida, will be back alongside Franks and Landingham to run at the Buc Days big bucks in Sunday’s Showdown Round.
© 2021 PBR Inc. All rights reserved.