Paralyzed Rider Is Back in Saddle

ARCHDALE, N.C. —  Doctors said Jerome Davis would never ride again after a bull slung him on his head, shattering his spine and paralyzing him.

Today, with the help of a special saddle, the champion bull rider, 26, is back on a stallion--even though he still can’t walk and struggles to feed himself.

His doctors haven’t been told.

“I don’t tell them everything,” he says, cutting a sly grin. “I’m going to do what I want to do.”

The saddle is the most familiar place on Earth to Davis, who sat on his first horse when he was 2 months old, broke his first bronco when he turned 11 and won his first national bull-riding event at 16.

Davis yearned to become the world’s best bull rider, and, at 22, he did just that, riding nine out of the sport’s 10 most menacing bulls at the 1995 national finals.

Then on March 14, 1998, at an arena in Fort Worth, Davis was paralyzed when a bull threw him.

He swore he’d ride again--if not bulls, then horses.

And so, a little more than a year after his crippling fall, just as he vowed, Davis rides a stallion named Chief. With the help of a special saddle equipped with a back brace, the 26-year-old cowboy and Chief wander his farm’s arena, survey nearby hayfields and watch for mares.