On July 15, bullrider Slade Rogers is ‘cracking out,’ and he’s doing it for a cause dear to his heart.
What is cracking out? For non-rodeo folk, it refers to a rider’s return after a time away, or coming out of retirement to compete once more. Rogers has been away for almost a decade. But next Wednesday, he’s picking up the reins again, and he’s doing it to raise money and awareness for cancer research through the organization Cowboys For A Cure.
It’s a cause that the Ghost Lake-area resident holds close. His father and his close friend lost their battles with cancer within the same year.
His father, a former boxer and RCMP officer, was inherently a fighter, Rogers said. “He’s battled all his life, one way or another.”
But in 2008, the elder Rogers was diagnosed with colon cancer and began the hardest fight of his life.
It was after five years battling the disease when it eventually overcame him in November 2013. “He knew it was coming, because that whole year he started fading more and more.”
Then, Bill Scheers, a friend and colleague who he had become good friends with through Rogers’ rodeo photography, was claimed by esophageal cancer that spread to the rest of his body a month later. “We weren’t expecting that one as soon as it did. He was pretty strong that whole rodeo year.”
“Next thing you know, it’s Bill’s turn.”
That year was undoubtedly hard: so much loss in such a short time. Along with friends and family, Rogers’ leaned on the rodeo family he’d developed.
“That’s one thing about the rodeo community: when somebody’s down, they’re always there to get people up.”
It’s in the spirit that Rogers will return to the saddle. Starting in January, he’s been getting back into shape, dropping 30 pounds through core and leg strengthening exercises and healthy eating.
“I don’t know if I’m quite there yet,” he conceded.
The last time he rode, it was on a bull named Cheeseball at Crossfield’s Pete Knight Rodeo in 2006.
“I was gone right at the gate on him,” he chuckled.
By the way Rogers speaks about bullriding, his passion for the sport is clear. It was in 2000 in Rimbey where he rode at his first official rodeo…and it wasn’t a cakewalk.
In the chute, Rogers slide up on rope and the bull, Blacklist, reared up in the front of the enclosure. When he came down, Rogers’ legs went through the gate. “I had no feeling in my legs after I was out of the chute.” He doesn’t even remember being pulled out. “It was just blank.”
His maiden ride left him with bone fractures in his legs. But he was already hooked.
Since then, Rogers has rode in at least 15 rodeos in Alberta and B.C. – Drayton Valley, Dogpound and Elko to name a few.
With almost a decade passed since he dusted off the spurs in 2006, Rogers admitted he’s a bit apprehensive about his July 15th event.
“To be honest with you, I’m scared,” he admits. “But that’s part of the business. If I’m not scared, there’s something wrong.”
Rogers recalls one particularly rough bout with a bull named Jailbird. He was bucked off and had the misfortune of falling underneath the 1,300-pound bull.
“I couldn’t get out from underneath him and he was just spinning on top of me; crushed me into the ground. But I still love that bull.”
Although his father supported Rogers’ interest, he wasn’t much for the inherent danger of sport.
“More the fact he was scared for me. He supported me in everything that I did but he just wouldn’t come and watch. Because of the cause that I’m doing it for, he’d be very proud. Because I’m doing it for something other than myself.”
“We’re behind him 100 per cent,” said Patricia McKean, one of the Dogpound Rodeo committee members. “He’s always really generous to our Dogpound Stampede,” speaking about the photography work he’s done for their rodeo for the last decade.
“Slade was the first one to step up and want to help with Cowboys For A Cure back in 2013 when we got started,” Kylie Scheers said in an email. Kylie is the founder and CEO of Cowboys For A Cure. After her father lost his battle, she asked Rogers to become director of the organization in 2014.
“Every rodeo, you could hear my dad and Slade talking and laughing about anything that would go on in the world. Slade brought a lot of peace to my dad’s world before he passed away.”
Rogers plans to honour that friendship the day he gets back on the saddle.
“I am in this to keep Bill’s vision of Cowboys For A Cure a full reality and not for me. This is about all the cowboys and cowgirls that are currently battling cancer and in memory of those who have lost the fight.”
Although the event is July 15, Rogers will be accepting donations up until September. On Sept. 7, Rogers will take part in a presentation by Cowboys For A Cure to the Alberta Cancer Foundation at the Cochrane Lions Labour Day Rodeo.
To donate to Cracking out for the Cure, visit albertacancer.ca/crackingoutforthecure and be sure to see Rogers’ return to bullriding July 15 at the Dogpound Rodeo.
