ProRodeo Sports News - April 30, 2021

“This big boy got chased by a rodeo clown in makeup. . . . There’s no telling what stories he told in jail.” – JOHN HARRISON

As wild as Harrison’s night in Crossett was, it wasn’t the only wild rodeo story that sticks in his mind. “I shut down the interstate between Houston and San Antonio in 2001 when my trailer caught fire,” he said. “I had a bearing go out and then my tires caught fire, and the flames got so high they caught my hay in my hay rack on fire. We had it going on for a little while. It was pretty good watching. I had an old trailer, and we left El Paso (Texas) for Harry Vold’s (in Avondale, Colo.), then we headed to Kissimmee, Fla. We had been driving all night and I had no idea where I was.” Harrison saw his trailer burning and called 911 because he knew he needed a fire truck. “I told the lady I was between Houston and San Antonio,” Harrison said. “She was like, ‘Sir, there’s like 160 miles there.’ We were trying to unload the horses, and the smoke was rolling up in there. My horses can’t breathe, I can’t breathe and the lady is trying to tell me to calm down. I was trying to get my horses off the trailer. She told me they were going to send a highway patrolman. I told her I needed a fire truck. Sure enough, she sent a highway patrolman. “My generator gas tank was right above one of the tires, and I thought the tire was going to blow. I was trying to get tack out and the patrolman was telling me to get back. I was like, ‘No, you can’t replace a trick riding saddle overnight.’ More help finally arrived. “They got a fire truck there, and by then grease was going, but the trailer never blew up,” he said. “The next exit was one of those Ma and Pa repair places, and they had the bearings and everything I needed to get down the road, except my trailer looked like a full-on barbecue grill. You could tell I had a fresh fire on the side.” Burning down the trailer on Interstate 10 – well, almost

Harrison immediately got off the ground and began chasing the man. “He was running, and I was chasing him behind the grandstands which was outside the fence,” Harrison said. “I was in full clown garb, and as I was chasing him two policemen were pulling into (the grounds). They jumped out and tackled him. I told the policemen, ‘I have two more bareback riders to go, and I have to get back to my act (at the rodeo).’ I had to run back and do my act, and now my nerves had gotten me, and I was trying to talk, and I was shaking. I was losing my spot in my act, and I was truly stirred up.” Following the rodeo, Harrison told his story to law enforcement. “When I went back to talk to the police, the man had so many robberies and stuff,” he said. “He told the police he was trying to get a bottle of water because he was thirsty. There was a case of water sitting outside my trailer underneath my awning. The police asked Kenny how much money he had in his wallet and he told them, and that was the exact amount that was in that pile of cash.” The burglar had never been arrested for assault in previous altercations, Harrison said. But because he pushed Harrison, the police added an assault charge. The crook served five years in jail. “This big boy got chased by a rodeo clown in makeup,” Harrison laughed. “There’s no telling what stories he told in jail.” Harrison said the Crossett Riding Club PRCA Rodeo committee apologized for the incident. “(Rodeo committee members) were bringing me cookies and telling me their town was not like that,” Harrison said.

ProRodeo Sports News 4/30/2021

ProRodeo.com

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