ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Rodeo cowboy Frank Koloski has been gored before, but never at an event he sponsored.
The founder and co-owner of Rodeo Alaska on Saturday was promoting and participating in the Alaska Sales &Service Bear Paw Rodeo Round-Up and took a steer horn to the abdomen.
“I have a nice little hole in me,” he said Monday from his hospital bed.
Originally from St. Cloud, Florida, Koloski’s specialty is “double mugging,” an event in which one cowboy on a horse ropes a steer while another on foot tries to wrestle the animal to the ground, the Anchorage Daily News reported.
Koloski on Saturday night was the cowboy on foot.
“It was just pretty wild,” he said. “When I went to take him down, I felt him hit me.”
He also saw blood on his shirt. The bull’s horn had punctured him below his stomach and pushed in about 4 1/2 inches, he said. He tried to “kind of trot” out of the arena but got lightheaded and fell.
“Embarrassing,” he said.
He took a ride to Providence Alaska Medical Center for surgery. His doctor spotted a scar on his leg where he had been gored before.
Koloski managed to win the double-mugging event despite the wound and was awarded $1,000 and a belt buckle.
He expects to be released from the hospital Monday or Tuesday, he said. He plans to heal in time to participate in upcoming rodeos: the Aug. 1-2 Tanana Valley State Fair in Fairbanks, which he believes is the farthest north rodeo in the country, and the “Tough Enough to Wear Pink” rodeo Sept 5-6 in Anchorage, which raises money for breast-cancer awareness.
He may pass on double mugging.
“I should be OK to do team roping,” he said.
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