When Logan Trumbo from Glendora High School returns from summer vacation and his English teacher asks him to write an essay titled, "What I did this summer," he'll have a unique story to tell.
He's the rarest of the rare, a teenage cowboy from Southern California. Next week, he's scheduled to compete in the National High School Rodeo finals in steer wrestling in Rock Springs, Wyo.
He gave up football, swimming and surfing for the thrill of getting on a horse, jumping off and grabbing the horns of a steer and taking him down.
"I love everything about it," Trumbo said.
And he gets to wear a cowboy hat too.
It's not easy being a cowboy in suburbia. He drives 550 miles a week to Acton and Lake Perris, where he practices, rides horses and receives training.
This past week, he took a train from Modesto to Bakersfield after receiving tutoring in Oakdale near Sacramento.
And he's going to be only a 16-year-old junior at Glendora this fall.
He used to be an age-group swimmer. He played water polo at Glendora as a freshman. But the time devoted to rodeo required him to give up his other sport commitments.
"He truly is the suburban cowboy," his mother, Julie Bolton, said.
He rode his first horse at 8, and "that was it," his mother said.
The horse is key to taking down a 400-pound steer in four seconds or less.
"It helps tremendously," he said.
A friend allows him to borrow a quarter horse named Little Man who's stabled in Lake Perris. The horse has to be able to follow hand signals and be ready to move at a moment's notice.
Trumbo drives a Ford F-150 pickup truck nearly 11/2 hours one way to practice his craft and doesn't complain.
"I'll drive anywhere," he said.
He got his driver's license in January, and, "It was a pretty good day," he said.
He had been relying on his mother and friends for transportation.
He has suffered gashes, broken bones and scary falls, but he keeps getting back up on horses.
He's 5 feet 10 and 155 pounds and used to be a quarterback.
Last month, during the California High School Rodeo finals in Bishop, he suffered injuries that sent him to the emergency room for four hours after becoming tangled with and run over by a steer.
Just another day in the life of a rodeo rider.
He's hoping to attend college with the help of his rodeo talents. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Fresno State and Nevada Las Vegas are among schools competing in the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Assn.
"You have to have a fearless side," he said.
--Eric Sondheimer
