GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Joe Garretson is your typical athlete, able to do spectacular things with his body.
He’s also an atypical athlete, able to do them even though he’s been battered, bruised, broken and bloodied.
Welcome to the world of a professional bullfighter, a job that allows those elite individuals to engage ferocious bucking beasts like nobody else in sports. They look the 1,800-pound animals in the eye and use their skills to keep themselves and others in the arena out of harm’s way and almost nothing gets in Garretson’s way from doing the job he loves. Since January, he’s suffered a broken arm, a broken nose, a broken hand, a broken collarbone, 12 broken ribs, a lacerated liver, a punctured lung and unconsciousness. He fought through it all, and on Oct. 9-10, he will be fighting bulls and protecting fallen cowboys during the Professional Championship Bullriders event at Van Andel Arena. Tickets are on sale at the box office or through Ticketmaster.
“The last one was a compound fracture of my right hand, and I had the bone of my index finger poking out through the palm of my hand,” said Garretson, 36, of Springfield, Mo. “It was at a Professional Bullfighters event in Denton, Texas, and it happened on the first bull me and my partner, Lance McIlvain, fought.
“It was cut pretty good, too, and the paramedics were arguing with me that I needed to get in the ambulance with them and go to the hospital. I told them to just wash it off and put gauss on it, and I went out there and finished the round. I went in the next day and got it stitched up.”
That was the last in a long list of things that has kept his orthopedic surgeon busy. His first of the year came in mid-January, when he busted his arm fighting bulls in North Dakota. A week later in Cincinnati, Garretson got the business end of a bull; he spent five days in the hospital because of it. “The bull rider came off, and I stepped to him and Joe stepped to the bull, which isn’t out of the ordinary for us,” said Brandt Clark of nearby Lakeview, Mich., Garretson’s longtime partner in protection bullfighting. “The bull got under his jersey and underneath his vest, but then it looked like Joe got away from him. And that’s nothing out of the ordinary. You take the hit, then you just keep going. “But Joe’s jersey stuck to that’s bull’s horn and acted like a yo-yo. The bull put his head down and mowed over the top of him like a steamroller. For a split second, I thought he was going to get away, but then things like that happen, especially in this sport.” Just that one episode resulted in the broken collarbone, broken ribs, lacerated liver and punctured lung. “I missed five weeks, then I was back fighting at a PBR event,” he said, referring to one of the biggest bull-riding associations in the country. “At that one, I was hooked bad three times, but I just kept going after it.” Those incidents were recorded on video, posted on YouTube and available to be seen through Garretson’s Web site, JoeBullfighter.com. But it’s just more testimony to what athletes involved in this sport do to compete, to work, to make a living doing what they love.
Competing with injuries is nothing new in rodeo-related activities, and bull riding and bullfighting has its share. In fact, Rob Smets will serve as one of the arena announcers of the Professional Championship Bullriding event in Grand Rapids, and he’s seen his share. Most likely, he’d be fighting bulls instead of announcing the event had it not been for his suffering the third broken neck of his distinguished career. “My doctor put it in terms I could finally understand,” said Smets, who was the premier bullfighter in the game, quite possibly in the history of the sport. “He said, ‘People don’t live after three broken necks. You have.’ “My wife told me ‘We’re not going until I push you in a wheelchair.’ Why I’m not in a wheelchair already … that’s a God thing.”
In Grand Rapids, Garretson will work again with Clark, a tandem that has worked well in the past. The two were the 2007 Professional Bullfighters Inc. reserve world champions, winning that association’s world finals. They’ve also worked many PCB events over the years. “This is pretty much his hometown,” Garretson said of Clark. “He’s one of the best partners a guy could have. I know he’s excited to work that event, and I am, too. He’s always there for me. “One of the reasons I’m able to fight bulls as confidently as I do is because I know Brandt’s right there.” It’s like a crutch, only mobile and agile. And in bullfighting, having a great partner is always going to be a benefit.
“Brandt’s one of the great guys in our sport,” said Garretson, who will be on hand to meet with fans and sign autographs after each performance. “He’s a good friend, and I can always count on him. He’s a great bullfighter, and I know he will have my back even when it gets rough.” Garretson knows the dangers, and he fights through them, even though his right hand needs surgery to repair the deformity. “This is what I do,” said Garretson, the 2008 PCB Bullfighter of the Year. “If I can’t work or compete, I don’t have an opportunity to get paid. But it’s more than that to me. I just think it’s important that I get out there and do my job.”
