Ty Blasingame

Ty Blasingame – Casper, Wyo. ($101,490)
2-time WNFR qualifier

Sometimes the unexpected works out. It sure did for Ty Blasingame this year. Ty is headed back to the NFR after a nine-year absence.

He was there in 2010 with Cody Hintz finishing the season in 14th place. Finding head horses, getting married and having daughters all added challenges to Ty’s quest to get back to Vegas. He came close finishing in the top 25 three more years. Then to support his family he started driving truck. He bought more trucks and had others working for him, but the desire to get back to roping was growing. Ty had been living in Ramah, Colorado. After going through a divorce, he moved to Casper, Wyoming.

Jhett Johnson, the 2011 world champion heeler is the Casper College rodeo team coach and lives there with his family, a family of heelers. Ty started roping with them and as a header had a lot of opportunities in the practice pen.

He got his old horse, Blackie, out and started looking for another. He had to start at the bottom and crawl his way into rodeos. He roped at the San Angelo Stock Show Rodeo last February and finished second with Brandon Bates. The average winners at San Angelo get invited to Rodeo Houston and that’s what they were hoping for.

That didn’t quite come through as they finished second behind Aaron Tsinigine and Kyle Lockett. Then because Aaron had already gotten into Houston based on his 2018 finish, Ty moved up as a header and got the invite to rope with Kyle.

They had never roped together before and ended up winning the rodeo. By the first of April, Ty was leading the world standings with over $71,000 in earnings. He is now ready to rope in the Thomas and Mack Center with 11-time NFR heeler Travis Graves.

Through all of his years of team roping, Ty, whose nickname is “Blaster” has garnered a lot of fans who can’t wait to see him rope on rodeo’s biggest stage again.