It’s said that every trail has its puddles. Long before Cody Jesus was riding a bucking bull for eight seconds, he spent the first fourteen years of his life on the Navajo Nation without running water or electricity.
“It’s not as bad as people made it,” said Jesus. “You do your homework under candlelight, and wash out of a bucket in the morning.”
Inspired by his father, who was a bareback rider, and the movie, “8 Seconds,” the Window Rock native learned to compete by setting up an old plastic barrel tied to trees with a rope.
“From my house, you could walk into woods for miles and not see anything.”
This weekend, Jesus buckles up for a new PBR “Unleash the Beast” season. He’s ranked 22nd in the world, and often referred to as “The Pride of Navajo Nation.”
“It’s not very often I get to drive four hours from home and ride in my home state.”
Jesus will do so under the bright lights of the Tucson Arena, a few hundred miles from where he grew up.
“Any bull rider can come from any circumstance in life. As long as you show up here, you’re a professional bull rider.”