Words by Jennifer Jory
Bursting out of the chute into the rodeo arena, bronc rider Enzo Costantini has eight seconds to harness the mental and physical training necessary to stay on his horse. Risky? Perhaps. “There are people who box, race cars and jump out of planes,” he points out. “You pick what you are most comfortable with. I developed a comfort around horses.”
Enzo compares riding a bucking horse to syncing up with a dance partner. “The adrenaline running through you is very empowering,” he relates. “You are one with the animal and if your timing is off … that’s how you end up in the dirt.”
A self-described suit-and-tie guy by day and Wrangler jeans guy by night, Enzo strives to balance his passion for rodeo with his day job as a real estate agent, working at the Compass Woodside office. “If I can hold a listing open in the morning and there is a rodeo close by that night, then that is the best weekend I have ever had,” he says with a smile.
Growing up in the equestrian community of Woodside, Enzo enjoyed a formative outdoor life on the Peninsula. He spent summers at his father’s family farm in northern Italy. “My heritage and being involved with the animals on the farm in Italy every summer influenced me,” he says. His exposure to the rodeo life came at a young age, traveling with his family to events throughout California where his sister would sing the national anthem. Enzo remembers thinking, “I know I can find my way to the back of the chute somehow.”
The 29-year-old’s rodeo dreams became a reality this year when he competed as a semi-professional bronc rider, one of the most difficult events. “I have a window of youth here and I might as well do what I have always been curious about,” Enzo notes. Initially, he considered competing in team roping events, but soon took the plunge as a contestant in saddle bronc riding (as opposed to the bareback version of the event).
A sport that dates back to the Old West, bronc riding originated with cowboys challenging each other to see who could mount an unbroken horse, hanging on for dear life before getting bucked off its back. As part of his pre-rodeo routine, Enzo finds out what horse he is slated to ride, walks over to where it’s penned up and tries to connect with it. “I am looking at the horse and trying to get right with that animal,” he explains. “You don’t want to struggle and fight against each other.”
To stay in shape and endure the strenuous requirements of bronc riding, Enzo maintains a strict regime when it comes to diet and exercise. “You can’t hit the ground that hard after being on the couch for weeks at a time,” he observes. So he works out daily, sticks to a vegetable-centric Mediterranean diet and goes to bed early. “I got a late start in this sport,” Enzo admits. “What is going to keep me in this longer is my discipline, diet and motivation. I am Italian, so it is easy to go off the rails with meals.”
Enzo trains at the Gilroy ranch of his mentor, saddle bronc champion and financial consultant George Veater. “I have taken a lot of notes from him,” he says. ”He is a big part of my story, as it’s not typical for guys in business to also be in the rodeo.” When he’s not practicing at the Veater Ranch, Enzo trains on a barrel with springs in his backyard, gaining the repetition and muscle memory he needs. “It simulates what you need to do in the arena on horseback when your second, third and fourth instincts need to kick in,” he reveals. “It is a bit of a blur out there.”
Locally, Enzo enjoys riding with the Mounted Patrol, a Woodside horse club started during World War II when San Mateo County coastal horsemen were deputized to keep a look out for enemy warships. “I get to hear a lot of stories from guys older than me,” he reflects. “You are never going to stop learning from experienced horsemen. I recently started bringing a new, younger wave of guys to mix with the older group.”
Enzo benefits from a strong support network of family and friends who travel with him to rodeos. One of his strongest supporters is fiancée McKenna Schott, whom he plans to marry this November at Saints Peter and Paul Church in San Francisco. The couple first met while attending Woodside High and have been together ever since. While he promised to limit the number of rodeos he competes in before the wedding, Enzo looks forward to riding in the California Cowboys Professional Rodeo Association finals this autumn in Red Bluff, California.
For Enzo, the discipline of bronc riding translates into other aspects of his life. “If I am able to open myself up and be as vulnerable as I am in that arena,” he says, “there is nothing that can stop me from being successful in other parts of my life.”