Steven Peebles says he used to be 5 feet 11 inches tall.

Now he is 5-10.

Such is the life of a rodeo bareback rider who has broken his back three times.

Between the injuries and a move from the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association to the short-lived Elite Rodeo Athletes tour, Redmond’s Peebles has found scant success since winning a world championship at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas in 2015.

But the 28-year-old cowboy is ready to get back on track this spring, starting with the High Desert Stampede rodeo in Redmond this Friday and Saturday.

Peebles will get the chance to compete against his younger brother David and in front of other friends and family at the PRCA’s Stampede, which will include several other Central Oregon locals.

“It’s always fun when you have a rodeo in your hometown,” Peebles says. “Every rodeo I always go to I usually have to travel quite a ways.”

Peebles — who has more than $1 million in career PRCA earnings and qualified for the NFR seven straight years (2009 to 2015) — first broke his back in 2012 at a rodeo when he says he “landed so hard on my right butt cheek that I broke the left side of my back.” At the 2014 NFR, he broke his back for the second time when “the horse flipped over backward on me in the chute, and shoved my face into my stomach … compression fracture.”

Peebles’ third time breaking his back was not a rodeo-related incident: In January 2016, just a few weeks after winning his world title, he was a passenger in an ATV when it flipped and rolled on top of him.

He had surgery on his lower back shortly after that. The multiple compressions to his spine, his doctors concluded, caused him to shrink almost an inch in height.

“I guess I’m just used to it, because my whole career … I haven’t had a full season without an injury since my rookie year (2009), so I’ve just had bad luck with injuries,” Peebles says. “I’ve always had to block some kind of injury out, whether it was my ankle, shoulder or back, or something. You just try your hardest to give yourself eight seconds of blocking that pain out, and give it your all. It gets a little harder as you get older, but you’ve got to just keep going through it or you don’t get paid.”

Peebles goes regularly to physical therapy and rehabilitation in Bend to keep his back right. He also has a personal trainer to help with strength and cardio, incorporating weightlifting, speed training, stretching and balancing.

“My back’s given me a lot of hell,” Peebles says. “It’s just an ongoing thing. It just takes a lot of homework. As soon as I fall short of doing my exercises and doing this and that, I’m pretty sored up. Sometimes it’s so bad it’s hard to get your mind off the pain.”

According to the PRCA, bareback riders endure more abuse and suffer more injuries and more long-term physical damage than any other type of rodeo cowboy. In bareback, the rider attempts to remain on top of a horse without a saddle and hold on one-handed without being bucked off for eight seconds. Points are awarded based on the rider’s control and technique, and for the horse’s power, speed and agility.

Peebles nearly died in July 2015 after he was bucked off the back of a horse at a rodeo in Montana. His broken ribs punctured an artery, and blood was pouring into his lungs, though he had no idea he was close to death. He managed to make it to a hospital just in time for doctors to save his life.

Later that season, a recovered Peebles won his world title in Las Vegas.

But since then, the victories have been few and far between. One significant issue for Peebles was having to start from near the bottom of the PRCA standings last season after competing on the new Elite Rodeo Athletes (ERA) tour in 2016.

The ERA — which debuted in Redmond in March 2016 — was formed as what the ERA hoped would be a supplement to the long-established PRCA. But that changed when the PRCA enacted new bylaws in late 2015 that excluded ERA shareholders, including Peebles and several other Central Oregon cowboys. Approximately 80 of the top cowboys and cowgirls in pro rodeo formed the ERA as a sort of all-star tour in an attempt to raise the profile of their sport.

But the new organization struggled, as it included just five events in 2016 and then canceled the entire 2017 season.

Meanwhile, Peebles and the other ERA cowboys were able to compete in PRCA rodeos last season, but they missed out on the early part of the schedule. To qualify for the more prestigious PRCA rodeos, Peebles says, he had to travel to more rodeos than he ever had in his career.

“It seemed like it took till about July to get some qualifications,” Peebles says. “Once I got those up, I tried to make a comeback to make the finals. I got really close, but I just fell short.”

Each season, the top 15 money winners in each PRCA event qualify for the NFR, and Peebles finished 20th last year in bareback.

Peebles says he liked the idea of the ERA, but he is happy to be back on a regular PRCA schedule — and he hopes to return to Las Vegas to win another gold buckle as world champion.

“I’ve really just been fighting to get back there and to get back on top,” Peebles says. “So I’m really looking forward to this season, and to get back to the NFR and ride for another world championship.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0318,

mmorical@bendbulletin.com