Going on the age of 27, Cody Call of 150 Mile House is retiring from a nine-year career as a bullfighter.
An exhilarating profession, Call told the Tribune he’s enjoyed every moment of it.
But the fight can’t go on forever, and he said there’s a point where the road to rodeos ends, and when just about every one of your limbs is no longer original, you may have to rethink some things.
“I’ve broken pretty much everything you can break,” Call said. “You have to self-evaluate where you’re at, what kind of shape you’re in and how much you want to enjoy the rest of your life.”
For Call, rodeos are a family event. He grew up on a ranch in 150 Mile House as a third-generation cowboy, chasing cows and feeding bulls as he helped with the family business.
“Whatever the old man told me to do I would do it,” Call said.
His father Roy and his uncle Earl have been raising stock cattle for about 40 years, through their business C+ Rodeos, first commercially then for rodeos.
“We take a lot of pride in the things we raise,” Call told the Tribune. The Call family has deep roots in rodeo, starting with his grandmother who was a barrel racer in California and his grandfather, from Idaho, who was a roper. Roy and Earl were both bullfighters, “the best of the best” in Call’s words, with Earl also competing as a roper and bull rider.
Growing up as the only boy on the ranch, Call said there was some pressure for him to keep the rodeo legacy going. But as a young man, he had his mind set on hockey for a while, playing as a goalie for junior teams across North America. When his family tried to introduce him to the rodeo life by getting him to ride cows, he said: “I was a total coward about it, I would cry all the time.”
A lot has changed since then, with Call becoming one of the few people in British Columbia, and the country, who can call themselves professional bullfighters. Throughout his career there were only about one dozen professional bullfighters in the entire country.
He started bull fighting when he was 17-years-old because a busy wildfire season meant there were few others around to do the job. His first rodeo was in Fort St. John, and at the time he didn’t even know about the equipment he could use for the job.
“I wore no pads, just went kind of el naturale,” he said. The first time he grabbed a bull by the horns is a time which he distinctly remembers.
“I have never felt more alive,” said Call.
From that moment on he didn’t look back. While he had the advantage of a childhood spent watching his father and uncle fight bulls, there was still a lot for him to learn. And when it comes to learning bull fighting, you’re bound to get a few beatings.
"To learn you have to make mistakes and that means getting run over by an 800-pound bull,” he said. But being a cowboy is all about facing your fears.
“Even if it terrifies you, you have to buck up."
It’s all about hard work and skills he added, but today it’s also about family. Roy and Earl have decided to retire from the rodeo business, but more than that, Call's career as a bull fighter is beginning to have profound affects in his life. With changes in his mood, focus and memory, he has seen the effects not only on himself, but upon his family as well.
And bullfighting is not a forgiving job. “In this industry, if your heart or brain is not fully into it you get seriously injured,” he said.
Call also said it didn't feel right to continue while he also sits on the board of the Logan Parent Foundation, which aims to create concussion awareness and mental health support for amateur athletes.
The foundation was created soon after Call's friend Logan Parent, a bull rider who suffered from repeated head trauma and mental health struggles, took his own life.
“I would be a hypocrite if I keep putting myself at risk,” Call said, adding this was a major reason why he was retiring.
While the Call family will continue to raise cows and may help organize some rodeos, their days down in the arena dirt are over. The family intends to have another indoor rodeo this year, and Call said he hopes to have a rodeo school in the future.
