ProRodeo Sports News - July 10, 2020

and Rodeo in Denver and the Greeley (Colo.) Stampede and team ropes as a header in his spare time “I deal with bones that don’t heal or infections in bones and things that make people at-risk for amputation,” Stoneback said. “Colten had broken his elbow and he had two or three surgeries to try and get it to heal, and it wouldn’t heal. His surgeons referred him to me because of what I do. “I had to do a pretty complicated surgery to, No. 1, get his elbow to heal and, just as importantly, do it in a way that maintained his function so he could continue to be a high-performing rodeo cowboy. It was key to understand what he needed to do and how that elbow needed to function in order to keep him in line with his goals of going to the NFR and winning a world championship. If we didn’t do the surgery right, it could destroy his career.” Stoneback fixed Fritzlan’s elbow, but he found other issues in the process. “It turned out he had an infection in there, and we redid all that and actually improved the range of motion of his elbow and treated his shoulder fracture, as well,” Stoneback said. STONEBACK HELPS AGAIN When Fritzlan was 16, during a ride in the practice pen a bull stepped on Fritzlan’s leg and snapped his left tibia. Fritzlan underwent surgery by a doctor who inserted screws and plates in the leg. The surgery wasn’t a success, and Fritzlan had two more surgeries to clean out infections. Despite the additional surgeries, the infections persisted in Fritzlan’s leg. So, he again called on Stoneback. “He had a really bad infected nonunion of the tibia,

Standings with $32,078. His biggest paydays came in San Antonio ($8,000) and Odessa, Texas ($5,322). Fritzlan is third in the bull riding PRCA | Resistol Rookie of the Year Standings. “I’m healthy, I’m feeling good and I’m traveling with guys who all help each other, and we feed off each other,” said Fritzlan, 20 years old and four years removed from the leg surgeries. “It’s great. The sky’s the limit, I believe. Everything I have been through with injuries has taught me that they might knock you down for a little bit, but you just have to get back up, dust yourself off and keep going. It gave me more motivation and a better work ethic. It also opened my eyes to what there is out there, what I want to do and to go chase my goals and dreams.” Fritzlan is in the rig with fellow rookie Ky Hamilton, fourth in the world standings, and Clayton Sellars, who made his debut at the Wrangler NFR a season ago and finished 12th in the world standings. “I didn’t know all the surgeries he’s had,” Hamilton said. “He’s a really good bull rider, and it’s good traveling with him because it makes me want to get better. Colten is always positive and always has that winning attitude, and he’s just a good guy to be around.” Fritzlan’s ProRodeo success has not gone unnoticed by Stoneback. “Our whole team and Limb Restoration Program are about returning people to their form and function and helping them get back to what they want to do,” Stoneback said. “Using some rodeo knowledge frommy past, plus our team’s ability to deal with these really complicated problems and bringing that together to help him get completely healed and now be in the Top 15 in the world is extremely gratifying. We are incredibly proud of him.”

and the bone wasn’t healing,” Stoneback said. “He had the infection and an open wound in his leg. This was an injury that you would have to have an amputation for. I took all the existing plates and screws out and cleaned up the bone, and he had a big, open wound that typically we would have to take muscle and-or skin from a different part of his body and connect it to a blood vessel down in the leg and cover this wound.” That procedure would make sense for most patients, but not for a bull rider like Fritzlan. “I knew doing what he did that it would be challenging for him to ride bulls and do the things he wants to do,” Stoneback said. “I used a really specialized technique where I put him into this thing called a circular ring fixator. What I did, on purpose, was twisted his leg so that the wound would come together better. We let that wound heal, and I gently untwisted his leg and put his leg back in perfect alignment, and the bone healed. We were able to remove all the metal from his leg.” completely healed, he has no metal in there and he has his own skin,” Stoneback said. “That was a big win for him. I’ve come to know him and his family through all this because our team has taken care of him for so long. On his first ride back after all that, I went and pulled his bull rope at a rodeo and that was cool.” No surprise, but Fritzlan is a big fan of Stoneback’s. “He’s the best,” Fritzlan said. “That year I broke my leg I met people who still help me out to this day. It made me sit down and take bull riding even more seriously, and after that I haven’t looked back.” The fix took three surgeries over five days. “Now, he’s infection-free and his bone is

FRITZLAN IN PRCA SPOTLIGHT

Dudley Barker photo Colten Fritzlan won the Sandhills Stock Show & Rodeo in Odessa, Texas, in January with an 88-point ride on Powder River Rodeo’s Hard & Fast. Fritzlan was 15th in the July 7 PRCA | RAM World Standings with $32,078.

Fritzlan bought his PRCA card on Sept. 30, 2019, and as a rookie in 2020, he has turned plenty of heads. He was 15th in the July 7 PRCA | RAMWorld

ProRodeo Sports News 7/10/2020

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