ProRodeo Sports News - Sept. 7, 2018

IN HIS OWNWORDS: TY TAYPOTAT TAYPOTAT HOPING FOR BIG PUYALLUP BOOST

T he worst part about my birthday being on Christmas is having to wait a whole year for any kind of presents. But it all blends in as one now. Last year was hard because I was still in the recovery process frommy biceps injury, when I got hurt again. I fractured my sternum last year just before Cheyenne (Frontier Days). I was fighting injuries for three years. It was rough, it sucks. Everyone gets hurt. But it was not a good deal because I had been trying so hard to get healed up, and then that happened again. That took me out a little bit. Tough luck, I guess. I was sitting ninth in the world standings in 2016 when I tore my biceps. It was the biggest injury to overcome, to start to trust my biceps again and know it can handle all the power from the horses. It took about a year and a half to finally feel like it used to. It’s a very long recovery process. I tore the tendon right off. Luckily, Justin Sportsmedicine got me fixed up that next day. I couldn’t use it for two months at all. After that, the muscle was totally Canadian bareback rider Ty Fast Taypotat is hunting for his first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. The 26-year-old from Regina, Saskatchewan, sat in 19th place in the PRCA | RAM World Standings as of Sept. 4 with $56,236. He was a little more than $10,000 out of 15th. Taypotat has battled injuries the last several years, including torn biceps when he was ninth in the world in 2016 and a fractured sternum a year later. After finishing 23rd in the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour standings, Taypotat qualified to compete at the Justin Finale in Puyallup, Wash., Sept. 6-9. His birthday is Dec. 25.

gone, totally weak. I couldn’t do anything with it. I had no trust in it for a long time because it was so weak. It wasn’t until a Canadian rodeo (in May of 2017) that I started to trust it again. But a couple months after that, I fractured my sternum. Now I’m starting to feel like myself again. My body feels great, I just have to start drawing some buckers now. This season has been good. Clint Laye asked me if I wanted to start traveling with him again. The time came where everything worked out, and we’re back traveling together again. That’s awesome. We feed off each other a lot. That’s a really good aspect of it. Our riding styles are a lot alike. We ride the same hand, so if one of us needs a rigging or a glove we can always loan our stuff. Puyallup is huge. That would be a good deal to do well at that rodeo. I just have to draw. I feel great, I’m ready for the buckers. If they throw them under me they’re going to get ridden. While my middle name is Fast, and people say I should be a calf roper, my dad rode bucking horses, too. That was his main event in his rodeo career. He roped calves too, during his bucking horse career. Then he got hurt, blew his knee out really bad. So he just kept on roping calves, and still does at amateur rodeos back home. My uncles still rope calves too, they’re really involved in rodeo, my aunties, too. We’re just a big rodeo family. I love the rodeo life. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. I’m sitting in a TimHortons right now waiting for a ride, and I’mOK with that, because I’m going to the next rodeo.

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Photo by karenkellyphotography.com

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ProRodeo Sports News 9/7/2018

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