Taypotat Suffers Season-Ending Injury

by ProRodeo.com | Jul 25, 2016

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – In the midst of his career-best PRCA season, bareback rider Ty Taypotat had things come to a screeching halt July 21 while competing at the Spanish Fork (Utah) Fiesta Days Rodeo.

Taypotat scored an 84-point ride on Frontier Rodeo’s Short Night, but during the ride he tore the bicep in his left (riding) arm.

“I was feeling good during the ride, and then in the last two jumps before the whistle, I felt my bicep rip off the bone on my arm,” said Taypotat, 24. “I was able to bear down for the last two jumps, and I got off any way I could. I instantly knew my arm was messed up. I knew I ripped it bad.”

Taypotat had surgery July 22 at Mountain West Surgical Center in Bountiful, Utah, to repair his bicep. He said he will be sidelined two-and-a-half months with the injury while his arm is in a cast.

“I can’t do anything for 10 weeks; otherwise I have a chance of my bicep ripping off again,” Taypotat said. “It broke my damn heart when I heard that news. I was a having a very good year, and now I’ll be out and I’m going to get knocked out of the top 15. It happens, but it sucks that it happened now. It’s just bad luck, I guess.”

The Canadian cowboy is 12th in the July 25 WEATHER GUARD® PRCA World Standings with $43,227. Taypotat, who joined the PRCA in 2012, placed a career-best 27th last season with $40,646.

Courtesy of PRCA