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Rodeo helps wounded GI get back in saddle

SILVER CITY, N.M. — Rodeo has given Spc. Jake Lowery something positive to focus on instead of the injuries he received while serving in Iraq.

He and his father, John Escobedo, are the 2007 World Finals champions in team roping of the Professional Armed Forces Rodeo Association event held recently in Fort Worth, Texas.

“Jake was the heeler and I was the header,” Escobedo said. “The PAFRA started in 2000, then went dormant after 9/11. They’re getting back on track.”

Lowery lost his right eye when a roadside bomb detonated as he was driving away from an early-morning mission in Fallujah last February.

“I have titanium plates around my eye socket and I still have traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder,” he said.

His job as a parachutist with the Army wasn’t needed in Iraq, so he drove a Humvee and was the squad-designated marksman.

“I’m an expert marksman,” said Lowery, now stationed at Fort Richardson, Alaska, in the Army’s 3-509 Parachute Infantry Regiment.

Before he left for Iraq, he participated in rodeos with the help of Charlie and Nancy Willis, who own horses and manage the rodeo at the Alaska State Fair.

Following Lowery’s return from Iraq this summer, he teamed with Charlie Willis for Alaska Rodeo Association events and won the all-around in the Kenai Peninsula’s Cowboy Roundup Rodeo series.

He competes in team roping, calf roping and steer roping. He has been warned by doctors that he can no longer participate in bronc and bull riding because of the metal plates in his head and because a concussion could exacerbate his brain injury.

His goal is to go to the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association finals someday and “try to win all-around,” Lowery said.

After his injury, he had depth perception problems and it took about two months to get it back. While in Iraq, he used a night-vision apparatus that only went over one eye. Lowery said he believes it helped him regain his depth perception because he was already accustomed to seeing with one eye.

“The only thing that is kind of a pain now is that I can’t see the fence and because I have to look back, I have to turn a lot farther to see my partner. It keeps my neck limber,” Lowery said.

He gives a lot of credit to those who have helped him get back into rodeo, including his sponsors and the American Legion.

Lowery, 25, said he has been participating in rodeos since he was in first grade, “almost 20 years.”

Before he went into the Army, he competed in the 2000 American Steer Roping Finals in Texas and qualified for the Invitational Steer Roping Association event in 2002, but he was in basic training and could not attend.

Back in Alaska, Lowery is in the Warrior Transition Unit, which includes only injured soldiers.

“Our job is to get better and go to appointments,” said Lowery, who said he hopes to be back in the saddle in three or four months.