Happy trails Relief, regret and retirement: Robinson (Part 3 of 4)

LAS VEGAS (November 5, 2008) - Following the final round of the 2008 World Finals, two of the greatest bull riders ever to compete in the PBR will retire. Adriano Moraes and Justin McBride are not only celebrated for their accomplishments, but also for their strong personalities in and out of the arena. It’s because of that dominating presence that both Moraes and McBride – two very different cowboys – are more than World Champions. They’re legends.

They will surely be missed among the Top 45 standings, but no one rider is bigger or greater than the sport. Another generation of young riders is sure to come along and define the next era of professional bull riding.

In any case, it’s difficult for either Moraes – who’s had an entire season to prepare for this moment – or McBride – who only recently announced his plan to retire – to know what it will feel like Sunday afternoon when they hear the 8-second whistle one last time.

With that said, www.pbrnow.com caught up with four legends – Michael Gaffney, Cody Lambert, Jerome Robinson and Ty Murray – to find out what that moment felt like for them. In the third of a four-part series Robinson talks about the sickness he felt six months after his final ride.

In his own words, this is Jerome Robinson’s story…

“I think it’ll take a while and I don’t think it’ll be that big of a deal when it happens. It’ll be six months down the road when you start missing it. When I quit, I was so busy learning other things and doing other things, but then when that slowed down a little bit it was really six months before it hurt me.

“You get to missing it so much that you would be nauseous at times.

“By hurt I’m not saying physically hurt, but it’s like being sick. It’s almost like something happened but you don’t know what it is and you have a gnawing in your stomach.

“I enjoyed riding bulls and rodeoing hard and, like I say, I quit in the fall of the year and kept real busy with my rodeo production cause I knew so little about that, that it was a learning process.

“But then when my rodeos were over in the wintertime I had a little more time on my hands, and I remember being in the Denver airport in the later part of June, which is the big push for the Fourth of July run, and there were a lot of cowboys there bustling and hustling, getting in and out of the airport, going to Greeley, and getting back there to fly somewhere else.

“I missed it so much it was like being sick to your stomach.

“The only time I ever remember being that way was the one year I didn’t make the National Finals. I went to the Finals that year and being there having everyone riding I was sick the whole 10 days—it was almost like being homesick type feeling.”

—by Keith Ryan Cartwright