OK, so… which one of your excuses for not riding is better than what these guys worked through?!!
I had never heard of them either… but Hubby listened to a radio show where Jim Hendricks the paraplegic trick rider was mentioned. So, we looked him up. There wasn’t much information…but in one article I read, Jim mentions his best buddy, Bud Jones, the blind trick rider.
Wow.
So, I googled Bud Jones but also found very little information.
In any event, these men, with the little we know, are very inspirational!
If any of you know about these courageous and inventive men, please email me or comment here!
JIM HENDRICKS, THE PARAPLEGIC TRICK RIDER.
I couldn’t find much…
click image to go to original story
A READER JUST FOUND THIS ABOUT JIM – it is the article that my Hubby heard on the radio that inspired this post! Great sleuthing!
Click image to go to article
NOW FOR BUD JONES – we have even less…
Blind horse trainer, Bud Jones. (Photo by Francis Miller/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)
THE SAME READER FOUND THIS ARTICLE ON BUD! – such great researching!
CLICK HERE to go to the original article.
My name is Jerry Simmons I met Buddy at a Rodeo in Mt. Pleasant Iowa. I was about 10 years old and I have a original picture of Buddy doing the head stand with the horse laying on his back. Buddy also put 1 of the horses on a teeter totter and Buddy would do a had stand between the horses hind legs and the horse would teeter teeter with him. I met his wife and the oldest child ad just been born not very long before that. Anyway I seen him at several rodeos around Iowa and about 20 years ago I started trying to find him buy to no success. I wanted to thank him because of him I started Roman riding when I was 11years old and continued until I was 15 and I started to out grow my ponies. So dad was undecided whether to buy me a team of horses but that got put away in West Liberty Iowa I performed there and they had 2 horse races and a man asked me if I would ride his horses for him and that was it I would become a jockey for just a few years but I always wanted to thank Buddy for his inspiration for me. I heard a couple of months ago that he had passed away and I am truly sadden about that
I am Jim Hendrick’s daughter. My father died in 2009 and is buried at my farm in Missouri. Thank you for this article and Dad and Bud.
Jim passed through Liberal, KS several times around 1979-1980. I was in 7th grade and my memory is a little sketchy, but my dad was a cop and he somehow met Jim and saw his cot set up in Calvin’s stall. He invited Jim to stay with us, which he did for an extended period of time on more than one occasion.
He was quite the talker with lots of stories and he got our family interested in weaving beads and doing sand art. He would embellish his exploits to the point where we would accept his recollections with some skepticism, but we didn’t mind because he was such a likable and positive person.
The last time we saw him he called ahead saying that he had just left California after taping a segment with Sarah Purcell for the TV show Real People. We had our doubts, but he (and Calvin) showed up a few days later with the gift of a beautiful white dog named Shamrock and a binder full of photos of him with Sarah Purcell (whom I was totally in love with at 12-13 years old).
He stayed with us for a while and then left as abruptly as he always had. Soon thereafter we saw the episode of Real People that he appeared on. His segment alone took up about a third of the show and we got a glimpse or two of Shamrock.
We expected Jim to call to see if we’d seen him on TV, but he didn’t. When the summer reruns came around, we saw a repeat of that episode of Real People. After his segment ended there was a note on the screen that said, “Please don’t send money. Jim has paid his debt.”
We never heard from him again.
Great to meet you and thank you for this information.
I am Bud Jones son Jim dad died Dec 19 1994 at the age of
66 he retired from show business in 1973 he broke in ILL and fl The last horse he broke died at the age of 35 July 4 2019Saw your post from 2018 last night.