“They Are Part of Your Family”: 43-Year-Old Owner of Popular Bucking Bull Shares Emotional Recovery Journey

The relationship between the bull and the rancher is more like comrades. The rodeos are the primary stakeholders, generating income and having a reputation. Therefore, they take good care of the bulls and provide facilities to keep them healthy. But what if your bull is diagnosed with a rare fatal disease from which surviving chances are minimum?

This story is one such bull who was famous for its bucking and had quite a name in rodeo circles. His name is Ricky Vaughn. The 43-year-old H.D. Page owner of the bull shares a remarkable recovery of Ricky showcasing his determination and effort to bring the bull back to arenas.

Bull diagnosed with a rare disease

In rodeo, bulls are also treated as athletes who get performance points and are awarded titles. They have to buck the rider before eight seconds to get the points. The D&H Cattle Co. is famous for its bucking bulls. Situated north of an Oklahoma town Dickson, they have a reputation among cowboys for producing legendary bucking bulls. One such bull is Ricky Vaughn.

A year ago Page saw some unusual activity in the Ricky. He had had his head down which indicated that he is either suffering from a horn infection or a sinus infection. When he approached the bull, he put his finger into his eyes but they didn’t blink, which suggested that he might be losing his eyesight. Page took Ricky to Boren Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital for treatment. The vets at first diagnosed and treated him for sinus. But, later on, when he was taken out of the stall he bumped into the door on his left side signaling that he didn’t see it.

The doctors took a CT Scan of his skull to find out the unbelievable. He had a pituitary abscess. The pituitary is a gland that produces hormones that facilitate most functions of the body. This was a rare condition and a fatal one. But this didn’t discourage the doctors or Page. They took it as a challenge and poured their all effort to treat him. According to Page abandoning him was not an option because “They Are Part of Your Family”. They are the ones footing the bills with their rodeo performances.

Bull’s miracle recovery

Ricky was being treated by Dr. Streeter and Dr. Riggy. They did their job and pulled all the obstacles that came in the midst of the treatment. When the treatment started after a few days Ricky became fully blind. He was then trained to react to sounds. For, when he needed to feed the attendants would stir the bucket near him so that he comes to the direction of the bucket to eat. He responded to the treatment very well.

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He was transferred to the Page’s cattle farm later on with medications that he needed to be put on. Slowly, he recovered fully and came back to the arena. After coming back, he showed his performance and became one of the contenders of World Champion Bull after a year. He is currently ranked no 5 in the world ranking, with an average score of 44.36. His average buck-off time is three seconds with a 95% buck-off percentage. He surely gives a hard time to the Cowboys.

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