My mother was sort of beside herself. I often wonder what would have happened if I'd gone out there,'' Gress says. It seems a rare display of second-guessing. The paychecks and cheers came at a price. Accidents are part of rodeo.
Performers often seem held together by duct tape and baling wire.
Gress suffered two memorable injuries, both instructive. Just before a lucrative booking at Madison Square Garden, Gress had a finger on her right hand stomped by a horse. The rodeo doctor begged her not to compete, warning that gangrene could set in. I ignored him and kept pouring ether on the finger,'' she says. The finger remains bent to this day.