By KARA HACKNEY

Special to The Hays Daily News

After a serious roping accident in team practice at the college indoor arena Feb. 16, Fort Hays State University rodeo team member Callie Capraro was determined to get back in the saddle.

Capraro, a junior from Grover, Colo., seriously injured her left leg when her horse fell on her. Yet two weeks after the accident, she competed in Garden City and last weekend she competed at Fort Scott.

Caparao said she never had been in an accident so serious before. As she and her horse, Happy, ran after a calf in the breakaway roping, Happy took one wrong step and stumbled, sending himself end over end. He landed first on his neck with the rest of his body coming over frontward and landing with Capraro still in the saddle.

As team members and rodeo team assistant coach Ross Russell rushed to help, Capraro said she could only think about one thing. Raising her hurting head up as she lay on the ground, all she could see was Happy still lying on his side as others rushed to get the saddle off him.

"Is Happy OK?" Capraro asked anyone who would answer her.

Happy soon answered her himself, standing up and appearing to be just fine. Blair Jones, a freshman from Monte Vista, Colo., was the first to get to Capraro.

"When I first got to her, I just thought about getting her out of the way as soon as possible so the horse wouldn't kick her or roll over on top of her," Jones said. "I thought the horse would be OK."

"I don't really remember much," Capraro said of the wreck, "just being scared after it happened because Happy couldn't get up at first. He is my first priority. So as long as I'm still able, I'll always look out for him."

After a long night and a day at Hays Medical Center, Capraro came out on a pair of crutches. One of the muscles in her left leg was injured from the impact of the horse landing on her.

Happy had only a little swelling and stiffness in his front right leg.

There are only 10 rodeos in a college rodeo year, so it is important to compete at each one in order to have a shot at qualifying for the College National Finals Rodeo in June. Capraro missed the Kansas State University Rodeo the weekend following her accident but was determined to compete at the Garden City Community College Rodeo on March 5 to 7. And that she did.

Prior to the GCCC Rodeo, Capraro said she just wanted to treat it like any other rodeo and give it all the effort she could.

"I just want to make the most of what time I have left in these rodeos," Capraro said, "so I don't have any regrets when it's over."

Capraro was up in both the breakaway roping and the barrel racing in Garden City, even though her injuries had hindered her from practicing either event in the weeks prior to the rodeo. Friends helped keep her horses exercised by walking them and riding them daily for her, and she arrived in Garden City ready to get back into the arena.

Although Capraro didn't catch her calf in the breakaway or have a qualified run in the barrel racing at the GCCC rodeo, she said that didn't matter to her. After making a visit to the Justin Sportsmedicine trailer prior to the rodeo, Capraro said she realized her injury was not something that would heal anytime and to just be able to ride with it was an accomplishment in itself.

"J.D. (from Justin Sportsmedicine) said I strained my calf muscle when it happened, and that's probably where most of my pain is coming from. He said that I could probably expect it to take "at least a few weeks to heal," Capraro said.

"Given the circumstances, I feel pretty good about the weekend," Capraro said. "I wish I would've taken advantage of the situation I was given in the breakaway, since my horse was working good and I drew a decent calf, but I'm just really grateful that I was able to compete at all."

Capraro physically had no way of correctly directing her barrel horse because of her injured leg, and her horse broke the pattern.

"I was hoping she (the barrel horse) would go out and make a run without me being 100 percent able to ride her," Capraro said. "But she just isn't confident enough yet to run without me riding her the same way I have been since I got her this year."

Capraro said she felt good about the weekend's outcome.

"No regrets," Capraro said. "Every run is a learning experience, good or bad. I went out and competed to the best of my ability, and I'll take what I gained from Garden and take it with me to the next rodeo."

Kara Hackney of Ellis is a freshman at Fort Hays State University who is majoring in communication studies with an emphasis in journalism.