Of course we all tuned in to Dancing with the Stars this week to watch our girl Charo kick butt, BUT, woo doggie, did you stick around long enough to get a gander at that cutie-patootie cowboy Bonner Bolton? I had never heard of the world champion professional bull rider/male model before, but GOOD GOD IN HEAVEN, I am now his biggest fan.
A little background, courtesy of US magazine:
The professional bull rider was raised on a ranch in West Texas and started riding bulls at age 10. His father, Toya Bolton, was a rodeo cowboy for two decades, so bull riding was in his blood. “My dad rode for 20 years and when I was 4 years old, he retired from it, so I got to watch him when I was younger,” he told Us Weekly last year. “I just fell in love with it since then, watching my dad — he was always my hero — and then I just thought it was awesome how one small man could face these giants out there in the arena and dominate that challenge.”
The Texas hunk won his first world title and golden buckle at age 20. After overcoming several injuries throughout his career, he suffered his most life-changing, near-death experience last year at the Chicago Invitational in January 2016. Bolton had successfully reached eight seconds on the bull (the rider must last that long in order to receive a score), but when he tried to dismount, he was propelled headfirst into the ground.
“I landed on my head, and unfortunately I was conscious the whole time,” he told Us Weekly. He broke his C2 vertebra and was paralyzed from the neck down for hours. He wasn’t sure that he would ever walk again, but sensation gradually returned to his body.
However, the injury likely put an end to his cowboy career. “No sane doctor is going to let someone with the hardware that’s in my neck get on a bull,” he told PBR in May 2016. “It’s hard to contemplate the prospect of maybe never again doing what I love so much.”
Sure there was a little dust-up on the first night when he accidentally grabbed his partner’s, um, bathing suit area, but rest assured, this was no Trumpian act of aggression.
Tweeted Sharna Burgess: “Anyone who has the ridiculous idea that it was intentional…is straight up stupid. As in lacking [the] intelligence to realize it was innocent,” she tweeted after the premiere. “@bonner_bolton’s a true southern gentleman & was so embarrassed that it even happened let alone got caught on camera for gossips to gawk at.”
In the meantime, let’s all just gaze contentedly at these 40+ pics of my next husband, Bonner.
Those lips! Those eyes! WOW!