What started as a normal championship Saturday for Ghostship Warrior from Sankey Pro Rodeo and Phenom Genetics was supposed to be another chapter in the career of one of rodeo’s most promising young bulls. Instead, it became the moment that changed everything.
Ghostship was bucking in the finals of the NFR Open at Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo in Colorado Springs on July 18 when his rider, Jestyn Woodward, got hung up underneath him.
“The way it looked to me and to the vet,” Ghostship’s owner, Matt Scharping, said, “that bull was trying to avoid stepping on the rider at all cost. Because of that, he stepped wrong and completely shattered his tibia. He destroyed it where there’s absolutely nothing to put hardware on.”
Scharping was faced with a decision: Should he put Ghostship down before they even went back home? While several people around Scharping advised that was the only option, the 19-year stock contractor, at the very least, wanted to get Ghostship home to Arlington, Minnesota.
“I thought I was going to bring him home to put him down,” Scharping said. “I didn’t want to do it anywhere but home, and that’s what he deserved; he deserved that.”
Throughout the 13-hour drive, every so often he’d check on the bull, expecting the worst, but always found him calm and comfortable being himself. With three bulls loaded ahead of Ghostship also making their trip back home to the ranch, Scharping wasn’t sure what he’d find when it was time to unload the last bull.
“I get to his gate, and he’s standing,” Scharping said. “I’m like, ‘Are you freaking kidding me?’ He walked to his pen and went to start eating and drinking.”
For an animal facing an injury this severe, the response was almost unheard of. And in that moment, one thought crossed Scharping’s mind. It wasn’t time to give up yet.
"I was like, ‘You don’t want to die; you’re not giving up,’ which means I’m not giving up either. "
A limitless future
To understand the weight of Scharping’s decision, you have to understand what Ghostship had already accomplished.
At just three years old, Ghostship Warrior did what few bulls in the sport ever accomplish. He earned his place in the rank pen at the National Finals Rodeo (NFR), made his way to the Professional Bull Riders (PBR) World Finals, and was selected as one of the 15 elite bulls to compete in the PBR World Finals short round.
And his four-year-old season in the PRCA was expected to be even better than his last. With maturity, experience, and a resume, a few bulls could match, and the future looked limitless.
But the severity of the injury Ghostship suffered in Colorado Springs was such that many around Scharping believed there was only one option for the star bucking bull. And that wasn’t an uncommon prognosis. A broken bone for any roughstock animal is not one from which they can typically recover.
But Ghostship’s status after making it home to Minnesota had Scharping optimistic.
The next morning, he started making calls. He reached out to fellow stock contractor H.D. Page, who told him to call to another stock contractor, Chad Drury. That conversation led Scharping to a familiar name, veterinarian Lisa Willis—someone who had already worked on Scharping’s legendary bull, Airtime.
“I called Lisa and told her what was going on,” he said. “She asked me if there was a place I could take him for an X-ray, but there wasn’t. I asked her if she was willing to try; she went, ‘Yeah, I understand there is a high probability he will not make it.’ ”.
Later that night around 11:30 p.m., Scharping found someone to drive Ghosthip to Gustine, Texas, where Willis could treat the bull.
“When I went to load him, he was in his pen lying down,” Scharping shared. “I went over to him and talked to him first, and that bull is so insanely smart it’s a little bit scary. I told him what was going on, and then I said, ‘You got to get up and go.’”
And Ghostship did just that.
“He stood up, walked to the gate, and got on the trailer,” Scharping said.
Once Ghostship arrived in Texas, Willis sedated him and placed the split that would give his shattered tibia a chance to calcify and heal.
Willis warned Scharping that when the bull woke up, he would likely be angry, fight the splint, and try to tear it apart, a normal reaction for an animal in his situation.
But Ghosthip had other plans.
“He wakes up looking around like, ‘What the heck happened to me?’ ” Scharping shared with a laugh. “She told me that none of them get up the first time with a splint. But Ghosthip, he gets up like he’s had it for two months. He’s done everything perfectly.”
And that wasn’t a surprise to Scharping.
From the moment Ghostship stepped into the spotlight, he was doing things most bulls never do. At just three years old, he earned a spot among the best in the world. Now, at four, he’s proving himself in a different way.
Not with accolades. But with heart.
The recovery will be long, and the outcome is still unknown. But one thing is certain: Ghostship Warrior has never stopped fighting.
As long as he keeps fighting, Scharping said he will keep fighting right alongside him.
“We don’t know how it’s going to turn out,” Sharping said. “But at the end of the day, I want to know I did everything I possibly could for him because he deserves that.”