Dane Pokorny puts his athleticism on the line to help keep bull riders safe, standing between the animal and the cowboy most of the time. He will work with his brother, Cauy, next week at Utah’s Own Rodeo.
(PHOTO COURTESY OF DANE POKORNY)
Pokornys will be in Salt Lake City to protect cowboys at Utah’s Own Rodeo
SALT LAKE CITY – The Nebraska Sandhills cover more than 19,000 square miles and feature sand dunes that are stabilized by grass through a prairie of rolling hills.
It’s a great place for livestock, and the region’s ranches provide testimony to that. They raise food that feeds the world. They also raise kids, little ones that grow into big ones with an undeniable work ethic. This is the home of Cauy and Dane Pokorny.
The brothers will leave central Nebraska next week, out of the rural life and into the metro to fight bulls and protect cowboys at Utah’s Own Rodeo, set for 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 11; Saturday, Sept. 12; and Monday, Sept. 14, in the Days of ’47 Arena at the Utah State Fairpark in Salt Lake City. Tickets can be purchased at UtahStateFair.com/tickets.
“The big thing about fighting bulls is the adrenaline you feel,” said Dane Pokorny, the youngest. “It’s something that glues you in, and you just keep coming back for more. Even if it ends in the worst way and you break your arm or break your collarbone, once you’re healed up – even when you’re not healed up – you’re raring to go back. You want to fight more bulls.”
It wasn’t always this way. The brothers – including the oldest, Cade – grew up on the ranch and got into rodeo a more traditional way. They competed in tie-down roping, team roping and steer wrestling. Cauy and Dane even went to Laramie County (Wyoming) Community College on rodeo scholarships.
That’s where Cauy Pokorny started fighting bulls. Still in high school, Dane, made the 300-mile-plus drive to Laramie to tour the campus and visit his brother. He was fascinated by it.
“Cauy is three years older than me, and after the college visit, I signed to go to school there when I was a sophomore or junior,” Dane Pokorny said. “I fought my first bull then. Cauy was already fighting bulls there in college, so I never really thought anything of it. We had fun.
“I went back to finish high school, then to college and started fighting bulls for every practice. Then, I would go around to all the other colleges’ practices and fight bulls for them. Pretty soon, I was fighting all the college rodeos, and it took off.”
There’s a rush that comes with competition. Pokorny was raised on it. He qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo as a steer wrestler while at Laramie. It was just the succession of things for a family that grew up horseback.
“Not many people know the Sandhills,” he said. “We like to say, ‘There’s nobody there, and we like it that way.’ We’ll tell you how great it is but take out word for it, because we don’t want you to come.”
He was being funny but was somewhat serious at the notion. Country life isn’t for everyone, but it is for him.
“I’m just so used to being alone in a sense, and it’s great,” Pokorny said. “You help each other out and just do stuff you love. There is no noise, no lights at night.
“It’s the best place in the world.”
He was riding horses before he can remember doing so. He was working cows and riding fences and doing all the things that cowboys do. Because of his upbringing, he’s able to understand livestock; that comes in handy when fighting bulls and protecting others.
“You get to knowing what a bull’s going to do before he even does it from just practicing at it every day of our lives in that way,” he said. “When you’re out there in the pasture, you have to know how to be able to put pressure on a cow to make him go the direction you want. That’s no different than when a bull faces you and is mean.
“You can watch his shoulders and his hips. It’s just having that cattle sense that we’ve known since we were 5 years old.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Pokorny will be working with a person he’s known all his life in Cauy.
“Out of everybody I fight bulls with through the year, Cauy is the guy that I trust the most,” Pokorny said. “I know what he’s going to do before he does it, and vice versa. I know if he’s going to roll high, and I don’t have to question if he’s got my back. He’s going to be there.”
That comes with years spent together, but there is also something that ties them together through their genetics.
“We’ll slow down a video, and me and him are making the exact same movements with out feet, hands, body and head,” he said. “We’re doing the exact same thing at the exact same time with a situation that’s uncontrollable. It’s our instincts that are making us do almost identical things., so there’s nothing better than fighting with him.”
Next week, they’ll have the opportunity to do it together with 36 of the greatest bullfighters in the world.