ProRodeo Sports News - September 6, 2019

Saddle bronc rider overcomes injury absence IN HIS WORDS DAWSON HAY

T his season has been a roller- coaster ride, to be honest. It’s been up and down, for sure. I had to get surgery on my knee earlier this year. I was fighting to get back into the Top 15 after that. But … it’s been my best year so far. I was out about three months. Right after (Rodeo) Houston on March 18 I had the surgery.

That’s a goal of everyone’s, to try and make it out there (to Puyallup, Wash., for the ProRodeo Tour Finale). Last year, I wasn’t qualified, so I got to go there and watch. I knew I wanted to be there this year. I ended up qualifying. Having so much success this season has been a blast. I’ve been going with Jake Watson and

At 21, Dawson Hay is a youngster in ProRodeo. But the Wildwood, Alberta, native is already looking like a longtime competitor. The son of 20-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier Rod Hay won the PRCA | Resistol Rookie of the Year in 2018 and is in great position to qualify for his first Wrangler NFR this season. As of Sept. 4, Hay was ninth in the PRCA | RAMWorld Standings with $97,578. He’s chalked up wins in Wainwright, Alberta, Airdrie, Alberta, Hermiston, Ore., and Bozeman, Mont. He also split the win at the Cody (Wyo.) Stampede. And he’s done all of that despite missing three months after undergoing knee surgery in the spring.

ZekeThurston, two other Canadian guys who are kicking butt too. They’ve had really great years, and we have a lot of fun together. Everyone’s doing well, and guys like that are super excited to watch me do well and I’m excited to watch them do well. It’s a really positive group of guys and I think that’s had a lot to do with my success this year. It’s been a successful year for all of us, but also it’s pretty easy to enjoy it when everyone in the rig is in the Top 15. It takes a lot of the pressure off and nobody is grumpy, though I don’t think these guys would be either way. It’s been cool for me to kick back and have fun and take it as serious as possible, but I think our rig has more fun than anyone else. It’s also really cool to have three Canadians in there.

The first few weeks of rodeo I came back I didn’t have a lot of success. But right before the Fourth of July, I picked up a win inWainwright and started to get my bearings back. I started to feel like I was riding as good as I was in the winter. It took almost 10 rodeos before I felt really confident again. Watching my dad when I was growing up, and my grandpa, and having rodeo in my family, going to rodeos since I was little, it’s in my blood. Watching my dad at rodeos in Canada and the NFR left an imprint. To be rodeoing like him is awesome. Rodeo is such a close family, everyone that my dad made good friends with I get to hang out with – the same people and the same stock contractors. It’s really cool to be performing in the same rodeos as my dad was.

Not licensed to use PRCA marks

ProRodeo Sports News 9/6/2019

ProRodeo.com

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