Daily Archives: September 18, 2009

Shy clown has nerves of steel

By KATHY ANEY
The East Oregonian

Keith Isley swears he is shy.

Those who have seen him on the job might shake their heads in wonder at that statement. A day at the office for Isley is getting out in front of thousands of rodeo fans and amusing them with his antics. In between rodeo events, he banters with the announcer and interacts with trained animals who stubbornly defy him.

Still, the 52-year-old who clowns regularly at the Round-Up felt a wave of shyness wash over him this week at a local Rotary meeting where he was the guest of saddle maker Randy Severe. When Severe asked him to say a few words, Isley reluctantly complied.

“If I would have had my make-up on, I’d have felt a lot more comfortable,” Isley said, grinning.

Inside his motor coach/horse trailer, Isley’s home on the road, he sat back and talked about a career that spans more than three decades. Without his grease paint and red nose, he looked, well, normal in jeans, plaid Wrangler shirt and slip-on shoes – he could have been a member of the fence crew.

His career started out with a short stint as a bareback and bronc rider, but then Isley changed course and became a bull fighter – the guy who distracts bulls, stomping and snorting, from cowboys freshly bucked to the ground. As a bullfighter, Isley’s speed and lack of fear was his most valuable asset.

“I was confident in myself,” he said. “There was no bovine that could ever catch me.” (read more)

THE old bulls are set to show the young bulls how it is done at the National Rodeo Finals at Ipswich this weekend.

In a unique addition to the national finals events, seven former bull-riding champions aged in their 50s will compete in a Legends Bull Ride on Friday and Saturday night.

All are either former Queensland, Australian and/or World Champions, and have spent the past six months working hard to get back into shape for their return to the rodeo arena.

The seven riders – Lance Anderson, Bernie Wallis, Mitch Deans, Graham Heffernan, Shane Connolly, Col Wilson and Danny Salgado – were all going round in the 1970s and 1980s before most of the current crop of bull-riding stars were even born…..(read more)