Found this photo, my favorite cowboy photo!

My friend Jaclyn Bloom tracked down this photograph. It is my favorite from my rodeo trip to New Zealand and brought back some great memories.

WAIMANALO COWBOYS STAR IN NEW ZEALAND

I looked at Jeremy Starr before his ride and asked “How’ you feelin’ cowboy?”
He looked around and smiled “I’m riding bulls in New Zealand”.
We laughed as we panned the crisp landscape and overflowing crowd.

One hour later we were flying in a helicopter with amazing sights of Christchurch Town below. It wasn’t your normal helicopter tour. My face was covered with clown make up. Jeremy’s was covered with blood. We were on medevac to Christchurch hospital. Jeremy had drawn “Extreme”; New Zealand’s top bucking bull. Halfway into the ride Jeremy got bucked off and the bulls’ front right hoof came down on his head.

My name is Patrick Ching, artist and bull fighter (rodeo clown) from Waimanalo, Hawaii. I was invited to be the rodeo clown at the Methven Rodeo in South Island this year. I brought a crew of Hawaiians with me. It was a thrill for us to visit schools and be on National television news and children’s TV and be treated like royalty in New Zealand.

We had our own Ali’I (royalty) among us in Kekoa and Rosina Ho. Kekoa, is the current chair of the Waimanalo Neighborhood Board and his wife, Rosina, is a native of the Bay of Islands, Northland. It was great to see Kekoa on a horse during a trek to the high country’s panoramic views. We enjoyed staying at Rosina’s farm and soaking in the sacred hot springs of Ngawha.

We visited with Fred Teixeira, former owner of saddle City in Waimanalo who now resides on a big ranch in Keri Keri where he breeds some of New Zealand’s top Bucking bulls. Albert Moniz of Haleiwa was also there with his hand made Hawaiian saddles and the tales of the Hawaiian Paniolo mesmerized the crowd. Handsome Jason Lau Placed 2nd in the bull riding beating out most of the top riders in the land. Alan Duarte of Kauai showed us his roping skills and gave the Kiwi’s a lesson in How fo’ talk pidgen. The family of Nina Gonzales, brother Justin Gonzales and their mom Leona represented Hawaii well. Leona rode with the American Flag in the grand entry and Nina came out with the Hawaiian Flag as the Hawaii 5-0 theme song exciting the crowd. Justin dislocated his shoulder at the Windchester Rodeo the day before but rode anyway with tremendous courage (and pain) at Methven. His shoulder was dislocated again during this, his second ride in two days. Bull rider Nelson Junco, a soft spoken cowboy kept us safe by driving the van skillfully on the wrong side of the road and bull rider Dean Suzuki kept us laughing with his humorous recaps of our adventures. Professional Rodeo Photographer Clayton Crusing got amazing photos and stories for the papers and bull riding magazines. You can get his photos and News coverage of our trip at http://www.picsbyclayton.com/Pages/Naturally_Hawaiian.html

Other members of our crew served proudly as ambassadors of Hawaii. Tim Farley, Tammi Onaha, Corky Summers and Charles Jamison worked constantly to Man our Naturally Hawaiian Rodeo booth, organize the great stick pony race and clown chase and pass out gifts and prizes to the New Zealand kids on behalf of the Hawaiians.

Then there was the Hawaiian Hula Bull contest. Each cowboy was given a lei, a hula skirt, a hula hoop, and only one task: To put the hoop over a bulls head without getting killed. Hawaii 5-0 sounded again and the skirts, leis, hoops and hooves went flying. It was Art. Naturally Hawaiian style.

Jeremy Starr became an instant “star” after his accident which fortunately didn’t kill or paralyze him, but did leave him with fractured neck vertebrae and a huge gash across the back of his skull. True to form, he refused to leave the hospital without a cowboy hat and insisted he walk out. Every news station and paper in New Zealand did a story on him and though our group’s motto during the trip was “No Cowboy Left Behind” we did allow one to stay there and heal.