Rodeo cowboy gored, still wins event
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Rodeo cowboy Frank Koloski has been gored before, but never at an event he sponsored.
The founder and co-owner of Rodeo Alaska on Saturday was promoting and participating in the Alaska Sales & Service Bear Paw Rodeo Round-Up and took a steer horn to the abdomen.
“I have a nice little hole in me,” he said Monday from his hospital bed.
Originally from St. Cloud, Florida, Koloski’s specialty is “double mugging,” an event in which one cowboy on a horse ropes a steer while another on foot tries to wrestle the animal to the ground, the Anchorage Daily News (http://bit.ly/1jI8MzV) reported.
Koloski on Saturday night was the cowboy on foot.
“It was just pretty wild,” he said. “When I went to take him down, I felt him hit me.”
He also saw blood on his shirt. The bull’s horn had punctured him below his stomach and pushed in about 4 ½ inches, he said. He tried to “kind of trot” out of the arena but got lightheaded and fell.
“Embarrassing,” he said.
He took a ride to Providence Alaska Medical Center for surgery. His doctor spotted a scar on his leg where he had been gored before.
Koloski managed to win the double-mugging event despite the wound and was awarded $1,000 and a belt buckle.
He expects to be released from the hospital Monday or Tuesday, he said. He plans to heal in time to participate in upcoming rodeos: the Aug. 1-2 Tanana Valley State Fair in Fairbanks, which he believes is the farthest north rodeo in the country, and the “Tough Enough to Wear Pink” rodeo Sept 5-6 in Anchorage, which raises money for breast-cancer awareness.
He may pass on double mugging.
“I should be OK to do team roping,” he said.
