08/12/08 Olympic bull rider?

A bull rider competing in dressage at the Olympics tomorrow and Thursday Is this joke? &I'm Susan Allen here because Jeff is out harvesting today so stay tuned after the break to learn how a black man from an impoverished background with a passion for rodeo found himself in the dressage arena this week in Hong Kong. Rogerio Clementino loved rodeo. Growing up on cattle ranch in Brazil where his parents worked as farm hands he dreamed of becoming a professional bull rider but an encounter with famous horse breeder would change the course of his life because you see Rogerio who also loved horses was thrilled when he landed a job cleaning stalls and exercising for one of Brazils most famous horsemen Victor Oliva. Victor saw talent in Rogerio and before long had the young black man riding his Lusitanos and Rogerio's dream of being a bull rider took a back seat to the reality becoming a world renowned equestrian initiating a list of first; dressage's first black horseman possibly the first rider to give Brazil an equestrian medal. In a pre Olympic interview Clementio told the press he has never felt any racial prejudice in a sport with a reputation for being European, white, and elite. In fact I'll bet Rogerio is respected for being a bull rider, maybe more dressage should think out of the box and cross over to rodeo, bulls have some dressage moves of their own. I'm Susan Allen