Tragedy
On the heels of making their fastest run of the 1997 NFR in the fourth round to split third, Sharon and Bumper, in trademark style, tore into the Thomas & Mack for the fifth round. They never completed the run.
“He had caught his foot under an exposed metal bar in the alleyway, and broke his ankle,” Sharon said.
Dr. McCarroll, who passed away in 2012, immediately jumped the fence to get to Bumper. After stabilizing the ankle as best they could with materials available,
Bumper was trailered from the arena to on-sight veterinarian Garth Lamb’s hospital. Lamb basically opened his clinic to McCarroll so he could help Bumper.
“You always think he’s going to be OK, because he’s immortal,” Sharon said. “Wecasted his foot. The closest best bone surgeon was in Chino, California. It was 30 degrees out and we drove all night. I had always thought he was a magnificent vet before, but David rode in the trailer the whole way to Chino with Bumper.”
Surgeons fused the broken bones in Bumper’s ankle. Bumper would wear a cast and have several changes to check on the progress of the surgery.
“It was with little hope that he would be pasture sound,” she said. “Dr. McCarroll said he’d done rope horses that had actually gone back to work. Of course, I just wanted him to be alive.”
Knowing that Bumper was in for a lengthy stay at the veterinary hospital, Sharon went to work herself. She started the lengthy process to become a licensed nurse in California, but in the meantime worked as a nurse’s assistant at a local hospital at night. Her days were spent with Bumper.
“After a week or two, they started to worry about founder in his good foot, but he was doing everything right,” she said. “He would lay down all day instead of standing. They had to do intermittent cast changes.”
On January 5 during his cast change, it was discovered that Bumper was sloughing his foot.
“They told me he would be a candidate for an artificial limb if I wanted to,” she said. “I had learned of a broodmare that had one because they wanted to get her to foaling. It was pitiful to watch, and I decided he was too majestic for that.”
Heartbroken, Sharon asked the veterinarians not to wake Bumper from anesthesia.
“I asked for a moment with him,” Sharon whispered. “He was so perfect— so fit and so shiny—so perfect, except for that ankle…”
The Legacy of Speed Money
Today, Sharon works as a flex-pool nurse, meaning she can float to wherever she is needed, for the Norman Regional Health System. She and her husband, Toby, have a 14-year-old son, Carson, and she recently wrote a children’s Christmas book—“The Legend of the Reindeer Shoes.”
When she finds time, she still loves to barrel race. Her current horse CCR Red Hot Design (“Garland”) is by Bumper’s full brother Designer Red.
She says she’s humbly proud to have been an ambassador for the bloodline.
“Within all disciplines people try to find the genetics of attitude and athletic ability,” she said. “People saw what exceptional personality and conformation Bumper had, and they obviously saw that someone that doesn’t know what they’re doing can get on and go to the NFR. Now, having been in the horses for 35 years, I’m extremely grateful for that.”
She cherished those moments on the road with Bumper and all of the people she met along the way.
“It was like being on vacation for five years. It was fun,” Sharon said. “I got to see my friends and enjoyed doing things with my horse. I loved the camaraderie. It’s a great family. I’ve kept in touch with many of them. We’ve become lifelong friends.”
Sharon says she likes to think that Bumper made her a better person.
“He was just the epitome of kindness,” she said. “He seemed to love me. He always nickered when he saw me. His eyes were always bright, and his ears were always forward.”
Although he’s no longer with her, Bumper’s presence is still with Sharon daily. His shoes adorn her bedroom wall along with treasured pictures from Kenneth Springer. Her “big check” from Calgary hangs on the wall and her Rookie saddle sits in the living room.
On the saddle rests a plaque given to her by her niece Jaime Brown that says simply, “Every rider has that one special horse—that one horse that changes everything about them.”
Every once in a while, there is one special horse that changes the face of an industry. One of those was Bumper.
This article was originally published in the March 2018 issue of Barrel Horse News.
