07/25/2023
A week ago today, July 18, was bulldogging and breakaway roping slack day at The Daddy of ’em All in Cheyenne. I had a call from Ote Berry in the break between events. He was there watching from above the chutes, and said a young steer wrestler had a terrible wreck that was sure enough scary to watch. I knew it was bad, because Ote’s old school and tends to downplay drama.
The young cowboy’s name is Ben Kilburg. He’s 25, from Marshalltown, Iowa, and has spent most of this last week intubated and in an induced coma in the ICU at Cheyenne Regional Medical Center. His wife, Mallory, was in the stands holding their two-month-old baby girl, Alaina, with one hand and videoing Ben with the other.
“I was immediately scared I lost him,” she told me. “I was videoing Ben’s run, and stopped right when it happened. I knew in my gut it was bad. A week later, I’m here in the moment and handling the situation as best I can. But when I go to bed at night, my brain goes back to that moment. Mentally, I’m still on day one. I don’t know how this is going to end, but I do know that without people’s prayers for my strength, I could not be here for Ben like I am now.”
What happened, exactly?
“Ben went to get down, missed the steer and rolled into the path of the haze horse,” Mallory said. “As the haze horse passed, Ben got kicked in the head. His hazer was right where he needed to be. It was just a freak accident. And it was absolutely terrifying.”
Ben was motionless, face down in the dirt. No one’s ever seen so many steer wrestlers run so fast.
Then came the rodeo sequel to that scene in the movie “Field of Dreams.” Remember that? Young baseball player Moonlight Graham faced a moment of truth when Ray Kinsella’s (played by Kevin Costner) little girl Annie started choking on a hot dog while watching a game. Young Graham had mere moments to decide between staying in his youth to play ball, and fast forwarding his life to be Dr. Graham, who was able to make the save. Moonlight followed his calling, and saved Annie.
Something similar happened in Cheyenne last Tuesday, when a breakaway roper stepped off of her horse and ran to Ben’s rescue. Dr. Jennifer Rice is a family-medicine doctor in her rural hometown of Buffalo, Wyoming. She wasn’t even supposed to be there, after both her barrel horse and breakaway horse, Streak and Mello, got tangled up in barbed wire at home on July 3 and were badly hurt. Rice vet released out of the barrel race, but was talked into roping at Cheyenne by her 15-year-old daughter, Katie (Jennifer and her husband, Keefe, are also Mom and Dad to Emily, 12), who lent mom her horse, Chex, and volunteered to stay home to doctor Streak and Mello. That girl’s generous heart, and her mom’s matching gift for helping others were a godsend to Ben and his family down there in that dirt.
Rice does it all in her work for Johnson County Healthcare Center in their tiny hometown just east of Sheridan. She helps patients of all ages, 0-99, with whatever ails them, and has also served on the front lines in an emergency room. Every experience of her medical life kicked in and came in handy last Tuesday.
There were only about a dozen bulldoggers left to go in slack, and Dr. Rice was #40 on the breakaway list. She’d just turned her horse away from the arena to lope a few circles when she heard the gasp of the crowd. She didn’t see the start of Ben’s wreck in real time, but looked up to see him hit the ground, then not move.
“He was laying on his stomach, and I kept expecting him to catch his breath and get up,” she said. “Cowboys ran out there to him, and you could see the concern on their faces. I was down by the boxes on the West side of the arena, so I jumped off and threw my reins at a cowboy who was standing there, and said, ‘I’m a doctor. I’ve got to go.’”
She jumped the fence, and hit the ground running. Ben was unconscious and still face down in the dirt when she got to him, surrounded by his bulldogging brethren.
“Everybody was afraid to move him, which was appropriate, but I couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not,” Rice said.
Under her direction—while she stabilized his head and neck—that herd of cowboys logrolled Ben onto his back.
“Ben was breathing, but he was still unconscious and he was seizing,” Rice said. “Then I realized he was bleeding pretty seriously from the right side of his head.”
The EMTs arrived from the other side of the bucking chutes, and worked with Rice to get a stabilizing collar on Ben’s neck. With the cowboys’ help, they then got him onto a spine board. Ben was then taken by side-by-side on that spine board out to the awaiting ambulance down at the North end of the arena. The ambulance transported him to the hospital, where he remains today with Mallory and Alaina by his side.
“Ben’s head trauma made it tough,” Mallory said. “He was intubated and put into a medically induced coma to keep him calm and safe, and so the doctors could monitor his condition with proper scans. They stapled his head laceration closed, and said he also had a brain bleed and a potential skull fracture.”
Thankfully, Ben was extubated Saturday and successfully weaned off of sedation on Sunday.
“He’s awake now,” Mallory said. “Ben’s talking to us, but is still pretty confused. He thinks I rode (Ben’s bulldogging horse) Charlie in the steer wrestling at Cheyenne, and that he’s still going to run his steer. He has no memory of the accident.
“They’ve graded Ben’s head trauma as a level two to three, which means it’s still very serious. He can talk and he can swallow, but make no mistake, it will be a long road to recovery. The most he’s been able to move so far is being assisted from his hospital bed to a chair.”
Ben’s bulldogging career has included multiple trips to both the College National Finals Rodeo, when he rodeoed for Missouri Valley College in Marshall, and the Great Lakes Circuit Finals. Sadly, this is not this young family’s first bout with trying times.
Mallory was pregnant with twin boys last year she was hospitalized in Cedar Rapids due to complications. Ben and Mallory were married in the hospital on April 23, 2022. They lost their baby boys, Cameron and Caden, who were stillborn due to Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome, three days later at 23 weeks on April 26.
“Cameron and Caden will always be part of our family,” Mallory said. “And I know they’ve been watching over their dad here this week.”
Ben has already started occupational and speech therapy there at the hospital in Cheyenne. Mallory’s hopeful that he’ll soon be released from ICU to the patient floor, which will be followed by hard-core therapy in a rehab facility. Her first choice for her husband is the world-renowned Craig Hospital near Denver. Craig specializes in neurorehabilitation after traumatic brain injuries and spinal-cord injuries.
As for Ben’s cowgirl angel, it should surprise no one that Dr. Rice comes from a rodeo family. Her dad, Jim Coxbill, roped calves at The Daddy for many years. Her mom, Linda Coxbill, is a sister with Lori Franzen—as in Powder River Rodeo Company owners Hank and Lori Franzen. So yes, that puts steer wrestlers John Franzen and young gun Gus Franzen in Rice’s family tree. And before she became Dr. Rice, a very young Jennifer was in the Cheyenne stands the day our friend Lane Frost died at The Daddy in 1989.
Being a wife, mom and doctor does not allow Jennifer much time to rope anymore. But she got to rope at The Dad during breakaway roping’s debut year in 2019. COVID canceled Cheyenne in 2020, but when it returned, Dr. Rice roped her way into the quarter finals in 2021.
“I don’t get to go rodeo a whole lot,” she said. “I have to request days off six months to a year in advance, and rodeo dates aren’t even set that far ahead. I try to go to a few close ones over the Fourth of July, Cheyenne and Sheridan. That’s about the extent of my rodeo schedule these days.”
Have I mentioned that after her heroics in helping Ben, she washed the blood off of her hands real fast in the restroom under the grandstands, roped her calf in 4.8 and placed in the first round? But on this day, roping was secondary for Dr. Rice.
“I felt very much like God told me, ‘This is where you were supposed to be, and this is why,’” she said. “I love to compete, and am passionate about it. But sometimes God takes you places for other reasons. I was in the right place at the right time, and am glad I was able to help.
“It was certainly a very scary situation for everyone there. Those cowboys who ran out to try and help Ben were terrified. They were amazing the way they let me direct them like a team of nurses in a trauma room. They were all doing exactly what they were asked, and praying for and encouraging Ben at the same time. I really hope people will continue to pray for this young family. We all need to rally around them, and pray for Ben’s recovery.”
How can our rodeo family best help the Kilburg family?
“Please keep praying for Ben,” Mallory said, mirroring Rice’s sentiments.
A GoFundMe has been set up by the Kilburgs’ dear friend Allie Dittmer at https://gofund.me/129b5817.
Cards and donations can also be sent directly to:
Ben and Mallory Kilburg
c/o Troy Willard (Mallory’s dad)
P.O. Box 8975
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52408
As we continue to send prayers for Ben, Mallory, Alaina and their angels, Cameron and Caden, let’s send special thanks to their plus-one cowgirl angel also.
“The doctors can’t guarantee that there’s no permanent damage, but Ben’s going to be able to live his life, and we’re so grateful for that,” Mallory said. “It’s going to take time, but we’re very optimistic about his prognosis. The way I see it, this was God wanting to perform a miracle, and He’s using us to do it.”
Hi, my name is Allie Dittmer and I am starting this Go Fund Me for our sweet friends… Allie Dittmer needs your support for Help with Kilburg Medical Expenses
