Most spectators at the Canadian Finals Rodeo appeared to be calm in the face of a full-grown bull suddenly charging into the stands without any warning, witnesses said on Saturday.
Four spectators suffered injuries when the beast hopped the rail at Rexall Place Arena on Friday and plunged into the stands, forcing the seated spectators to scatter before rodeo hands corralled the animal, named Rewind.
"People were kind of just standing there. The announcer was saying to people in the seats, 'Go high, go high!' There was no really big panic," said Murray Janz, who was in the stands, watching in surprise at the beast's impromptu rampage.
"It was scratching, just trying to go somewhere. But the pickup man was holding him tight," said Janz, who noted that people in the nearby seats appeared calm.
Rodeo officials said they'll review the incident, but rodeo commissioner John Windwick noted it was the first time in the 37-year history of the event that something like this happened. He said everyone reacted quickly and in the way they were supposed to.
"It's a very rare occurrence," Windwick said in an interview on Saturday morning.
"If there's a way to make sure this doesn't happen again, we'll look at it."
Windwick explained that Rewind had just bucked off rider Tanner Girletz and "took a trot" around the competition area. A pickup rider named Gary Rempel, whose job is to round up the animals and guide them off the floor, got a rope on Rewind right before he decided to jump the two-metre fence.
The rope meant that Rempel was able to hold the bull, which weighed close to 600 kilograms, against the inside of the rail and keep him from running further up into the stands.
More rodeo staff arrived to help keep the animal under control until the rails could be removed so that Rewind could be led back though the competition area and out of the arena.
All the spectators who were injured were sitting in the front row. Three were treated at the scene and another was taken to hospital.
Windwick said Saturday that he didn't have an update on the condition of the person taken to hospital. However, an announcer at Rexall Place told fans on Saturday that the injured person joked with paramedics, saying, "That's what you get for being in the front row."
Janz, who said he's seen animals jump up into the seats before at auctions, said more people would likely have been injured if Rempel, the pickup rider, hadn't gotten a rope around the bull before the animal jumped.
Rempel, who is originally from Saskatchewan and now lives in Great Falls, Montana, has worked the Canadian Finals Rodeo a dozen times and has been a pickup rider for close to 30 years.
He told a news conference Saturday that bulls can be hard to predict.
"Who knows what goes on in their minds? This one decided he was going to jump and that's what he did," Rempel said.
Windwick said Rewind received a cut to his leg, so he won't be used again at this rodeo. But he said the animal, which he described as "the best of the best" will likely be used again in competition.
The bull riding events continued Friday following the incident, and the rodeo resumed as scheduled Saturday afternoon.
Wayne Jahnsen, who sat in the second row for Saturday's events, said he wasn't the least bit worried about a repeat of the incident.
"The accidents are few and far between. The chances are better of getting hurt in a hockey game," Jahnsen said.