ProRodeo Sports News - January 22, 2021

SHORT ROUND Vold Rodeo Company’s Painted Valley passes away Greener pastures

P ainted Valley, a multi-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo bareback and saddle bronc horse, passed away Jan. 14, according to Kirsten Vold, owner of Vold Rodeo Company. Painted Valley was 19 and a ranch-raised stud. Painted Valley was the 2010 PRCA Saddle Bronc Horse of the Year and the top saddle bronc horse of the 2009 National Finals Rodeo. On the maternal side, Painted Valley was a son of Harry Vold’s six-time NFR mare Big Valley. The horse was a product of decades spent selectively breeding bucking horses on the Vold Ranch in Avondale, Colo. Big Valley is a daughter of the producing-Vold mare Yellow Valley and Vold stud named Kojak, all ranch-raised. In 2007, Painted Valley was selected

to his first NFR as a bareback horse. The following year, he debuted in Las Vegas as a saddle bronc horse. Selected to his third NFR in 2009, Painted Valley had a breakout year, from carrying ProRodeo Hall of Famer Billy Etbauer to an 89-point ride in Cheyenne, Wyo., to earning best bronc at San Antonio. He was also selected best saddle bronc at the Mountain

PRCA ProRodeo file photo

States Circuit that year and third runner-up in the Saddle Bronc Horse of the Year voting to go with the NFR saddle bronc of the year honor. Painted Valley retired from bucking in March 2014.

Bull rider Daylon Swearingen, who qualified for the National Finals Rodeo in 2019, is out the rest of the winter and much of the spring with multiple injuries. Bareback rider Leighton Berry, who made his Wrangler NFR debut in 2020, is likely out even longer with a back injury. Swearingen suffered a right shoulder injury at a non-PRCA sanctioned event in the fall. Dr. Tandy Freeman operated on the shoulder Nov. 25. Swearingen will have hip surgery in February. Swearingen is aiming to return to competition in May or June. Berry was injured at the Sandhills Stock Show & Rodeo in Odessa, Texas, Jan. 8. “I got smashed in the bucking chutes and suffered some torn ligaments between my two vertebrae, my T12 and L1 to be Swearingen, Berry out indefinitely

exact,” said Berry, 21. “Those are compressed, so they are going to

go in there and put two screws in those vertebrae, anchor them down and put a bone graft where the ligament is torn and then a rod to fuse them together.” Berry is having surgery in Austin, Texas, Jan. 27. “I’m expecting to be out between six and eight months,” Berry said. “It just depends on how my recovery comes along.” Berry Swearingen

ProRodeo Sports News 1/22/2021

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