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Show Legless Cowboy Manages To Become Star in Rodeo BRANDON, MAN. A legless cowboy manages to do rather well astride his horse if it doesn't buck. The cowpoke is Danny Wilkinson, Wilkin-son, who rode into Brandon recently re-cently as a star rodeo performer. On his horse, Turk, Danny whirled through a fancy riding stunt that won the crowd's heart. Danny's no stranger to the saddle. sad-dle. He grew up in Alberta's ranch country and when he was 8 years old he could ride with the best of them. He's 25 now. As soon as he was old enough to join up in the second World War, Danny entered the Canadian army. He was in the paratroops. He went overseas and on Dec. 10, 1944, he stepped on a land mine in Italy and lost his legs. Painful months in the hospital followed fol-lowed and during that time Danny pondered whether he'd be able to pursue the career he'd always wanted to follow singing hillbilly songs on the radio. Late In 1945 he "got a hankering" to get back into the saddle. Ignoring Ignor-ing those who said it would be Impossible, Im-possible, he rigged up a saddle support for himself and In no time was back on a horse. The support: One piece of potato sack looped around his body and hooked over the saddle horn. "It was kinda tough getting used to all right," said Danny. "It's O.K. as long as Turk does not buck." |