Rodeo saved Tommy Lucia.
So maybe it's only fitting that a man who's spent more than 45 years earning a living from the sport has become a savior of sorts himself.
"I grew up in the streets of Minneapolis, very poor," he said. "I was raised by my mom, who worked in a garment factory to support us. I tried to stay a good kid, but it's hard to understand living in those circumstances. Life don't mean much to you."
Funny how things change.
Animals sort of saved Lucia from a probable destructive lifestyle, and now he saves animals that would otherwise be killed. Lucia, 60, of Weatherford, Texas, is an animal trainer with two of Rodeo's most popular acts. He spent the last seven days in Utah with Whiplash, the dog-riding, sheep-herding monkey; and In His Glory II, a sway back horse with amazing ability.
He doesn't remember exactly how he got to rodeo, only working at a few dude ranches and visiting his half-brother who owned a farm. He does remember he began bullriding at age 15, and he's never looked back. After a few years riding bulls, he put on a clown suit and started fighting them.
"I thought I was going to be a cowboy," he said of his early days. "Then I spent 21 years as a clown bullfighting . . . I got older, and after so many beatings and hookings, I gave it up."
He'd been training animals all along, and he settled on the two acts he now performs because they were unique.Their message and their oddity are the reasons Days of '47 Rodeo chairman Brad Harmon brought them back to Salt Lake City. He said the response has been nothing but overwhelmingly positive.
And why not? That's the review both acts get everywhere they go. Whiplash is incredibly popular, with media inquiries from as far away as Japan.
"It's crazy, to tell you the truth," he said after a performance Monday. "I do Glory because it's not just an entertaining act, because most horses can't do the things he can, but because he's got a great story."
Glory's story is that he was bred from some of the finest thoroughbreds in the country. But something went wrong, and he was born with a defect known as a sway back, a curvature of the spine.
"When you have a swayback colt, generally people put them down, especially if they come from good stock," he said. "You don't want anybody to know your stud threw a swayback."
In Glory II's case, the horse that performs with Lucia now, the owners left him out to pasture for a year hoping his back would straighten out. When it didn't, the owners called a man who made a living with a trained sway back named Glory. He took the horse, but didn't think he'd ever use him in an act because he already had a great horse for his act.
Then one night, Glory died quickly and unexpectedly of colic.
"It was a real tragedy," Lucia said. So Lucia began working with Glory II, and the chemistry he thought had died with Glory was born again with Glory II. He's now nine years old and has been performing for about six and a half years.
Lucia said his acts are booked all over the country sometimes two years in advance. He gets mail about his acts in almost every city he travels to. He said the mail regarding Glory II is inspiring and heartbreaking as writers, often children, relate how they've dealt with the prejudice (against disabilities) that almost doomed the beautiful black horse.
"You can't imagine the mail we get," he said. "It's heart-wrenching."
And bringing that message of hope and understanding is what keeps the 60-year-old Lucia on the road 10 months out of the year.
"That's what it's really all about," he said.
Oh, and he still takes horses nobody else wants. He just finds homes for them, and when he can't, he keeps them himself. What at one time eluded him — the value of life — he now understands better than most. The animals are part of his family, he says.
"We live this. Sometimes when I get up, I whinny, and sometimes I chirp or bark."
E-MAIL: adonaldson@desnews.com