Professional bareback rider Keenan Hayes rides during a rodeo at the Denver Coliseum at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Before becoming a world bareback champion, Keenan Hayes was a rebel rider on his family’s farm in rural Hayden.
“When I was about 10 years old, my dad bought me a few ponies that were outlaws, so I started riding pony broncs,” Hayes recalled. “I rode them and rode them all the time. Sometimes, when no one was home, I would ride them and do it myself.
“It probably wasn’t the best idea, but I did it because (rodeo) is about how much guts and effort you have.” If this is what you really want, put your head down and go for it. It has to be realized. I shouldn’t have been riding alone, but if everyone was off work, I’d get them (in the bucking chute), put on (the gear), open the gate myself and try to flank them. . Usually I would ride it and get off cleanly, but sometimes I would get stepped on and I would be lying alone in the dirt and be like, “Oh, shit.” ”
Fast forward nearly a decade, and a lonely moment on the family farm foreshadowed Hayes’ rodeo greatness.
In 2023, Hayes became the first rookie to win the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association bareback world title and the first Colorado rider since Bruce Ford in 1987. He set a single-season event earnings record with $434,050 and also won the Rookie of the Association title. That year he won the Mountain States Circuit title and the National Finals Rodeo average title.
In other words, the 21-year-old’s 2023 season comes one year after setting the PRCA single-season allowance record of $108,568, making him one of the sport’s preeminent stars. And he doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon.
Professional bareback rider Keenan Hayes tapes his wrists and forearms before a matinee rodeo at the Denver Coliseum at the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (Photo by Andy Cross/ The Denver Post)
“He’s not upset about anything,” Keenan’s sister, Caitlin Hayes, explained. “Keenan started competing in amateur rodeos when he was 15 or 16 years old and won the (Colorado Professional Rodeo Association) finals, riding horses and kicking butt against 20-year-olds. He was a step or two ahead of where he needed to be. That’s when we knew what he was going to be.”
Hayes is the top local rodeo athlete to watch at this year’s National Western Stock Show in Denver, advancing to next week’s bareback semifinals after another solid ride Friday afternoon. . At last year’s NWSS, Hayes won Colorado vs. Worlds.
He recognized the potential in the rodeo-obsessed kid from Hayden who also developed into an elite wrestler, finishing fourth at 138 pounds at the CHSAA Class 2A state tournament as a freshman.
“I noticed a long time ago (in elementary and middle school) that there was a big thing about Keenan,” said Casey Colletti, one of Hayes’ first riding coaches and now a mentor and friend. wanted to be great in everything he did.” “Every night before he went to bed, he did 100 push-ups and 100 sit-ups (and 100 pull-ups, too). And every morning before he went to school, he did 100 of each. He was very confident because he was such a good wrestler. And the way he rode the spar board and the bucking machine was really great…(When I was coaching him) he was like a little sponge.”
Hayes quit wrestling and football after his freshman year and transferred from Hayden High School to online school after breaking his jaw during a bullfight. It was the most serious rodeo injury Hayes had endured, worse than the staples in his head and a broken collarbone.
All four bones in his lower jaw pushed through his tongue, requiring long-term hospitalization and preventing him from attending school. At that point, instead of cashing in his rodeo chips, he shoved them all into the center of the table. Eventually, he graduated from high school a year early and began acting full-time on the amateur rodeo circuit at the age of 17.
Professional bareback rider Keenan Hayes (left) puts on his boots in preparation for a matinee rodeo at the Denver Coliseum during the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Friday, Jan. 12, 2024. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
“I could tell (the broken jaw) had me confused for a while,” Caitlin Hayes said. “And two weeks before that, he got caught with a naked horse and drugs around the arena and was sent to the hospital, where he had to get his confidence back. But after that there was no stopping him. There wasn’t.”
