He had a horse named Charley, and it hurt like hell. So bad, in fact, it drove him to stop drinking.
Since then, he’s won $10,000 on tour.
Trust Cochrane steer wrestler Straws Milan to buck convention in his quest to get back on track in the rodeo ring.
At Calgary Stampede watching older-brother Tanner Milan compete July 12 in Championship Sunday steer wrestling, with eldest-brother Baillie hazing, the 2011 Stampede steer-wrestling champ is perfectly serious in detailing his recovery from severe muscle pain in his right leg.
“The start of the season went really good. I won a couple of rodeos right off the start. Then I was practising and I hurt my leg really bad. I got a bad Charley horse,” Straws recalls. “I just couldn’t get it to heal up. I had to miss a bunch of rodeos. I was having trouble getting it healed and I actually quit drinking. I just stayed away from the drinking and it’s come around 100 per cent.”
And when he’s 100 per cent, Straws Milan is making hay in the sunshine. He took $3,700 out of Williams Lake Stampede and $2,600 from Ponoka Stampede, both in late June. Toss in another $1,550 US out of Sheridan, WY, last week and the cash register is ringing again. He’s had some hits in between the larger paydays since putting down the bottle and recovering from injury.
“It’s been 42 days now that I haven’t had a drink. And even, since I quite drinking, I’ve won $10,000,” he relates. “I lost a little bit of weight. Just eating better and stuff.”
He’s had the same kind of success on Smoke that Tanner’s been having. The little horse they bought out of Oklahoma in March is paying out, huge. But Straws has also been riding another mount named, appropriately enough, Boozer.
“The other one we bought from Lynn Churchill out of Valentine, Nebraska,” Straws says of Boozer. “Tanner rodeoed a bunch with Lynn when he started out. Lynn’s always been good to us. He’s always helped us out a bunch. When he had that horse he said ‘I want to see you guys have him.’ It worked out well.”
Just as well as Straws’s recovery from that Charley horse in May. And he’s going to need both legs in top condition to qualify for Canadian Finals Rodeo in November and defend the 2015 Canadian Cowboy Ski Race title he won in March at Lake Louise.
