North Platte, Neb. (June 16, 2022) – If you’re going to be in the lead at a rodeo, you might as well be at the top with a brother.
That’s where Ty Breuer, Mandan, N.D., finds himself after the second night of the Buffalo Bill Rodeo in North Platte on June 16.
The bareback rider took the lead with 82 points, three points ahead of fellow bareback rider Tanner Aus, who isn’t his biological brother, but a very good friend and a long-time traveling partner.
Breuer was aboard the Beutler and Son Rodeo Co. horse #255, Belle Starr. It wasn’t easy getting out of the chute on her, though. With Breuer’s hand in the bareback rigging, the horse reared in the chute, pulling his hand with her and when she rared up, pulling his hand with her and squashing it.
After a quick consultation with Rhett Beutler, of Beutler and Son rodeo, Beutler offered Breuer to make his ride farther down in the rodeo. But Breuer wanted to do it then.
“She got me pretty good,” he said. “They said they’d buck her in the saddle bronc riding, but then it really starts hurting in about ten minutes, and when your adrenaline is already going, you might as well get it done.”
It was worth the wait, as he bested the field of bareback riders so far.
North Platte is usually the jumping off place for the busy summer rodeo run, and that is true for Breuer as well. A five-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier, he’s looking to rodeo hard for the summer. His year “has been pretty slow but it’s heating up now,” he said. “I was at home getting cattle out to pasture and spring work done, and now I’m ready to rodeo.”
He’s married, with three kids, ages four, three and one, and it’s harder to leave the ranch. This year, he’s hired someone to help out with ranch work while he’s gone. “That will take a lot of pressure off me so I can be on the road, and then stuff’s getting done at home.”
He and Aus are close friends and leading in the first and second place at the rodeo, but competing against each other is good for both of them. “Me and Tanner are like brothers, and it’s fun rodeoing because we both push each other. Tanner’s riding awesome right now. Everywhere he’s going, he’s winning, and I’m trying to keep up. It pushes a guy and that’s what you want in the rig.”
He and Aus have rodeoed together since their rookie year, 2010. “There aren’t too many guys who have had the same traveling partner for that long,” he said. The two even planned their weddings to be a week apart, in 2015.
The fast time in the second round of the tie-down roping is held by a world champion.
Haven Meged, the 2019 PRCA World champion, had a time of 7.7 seconds to be at the top of the leaderboard after slack and the evening performance.
After breaking the barrier in the first round on Wednesday, he knew he had to make good on the second calf.
“I knew I messed up yesterday,” he said. “I didn’t trust myself yesterday, which was a rookie mistake at a two-header. I knew what to do, I just didn’t quite do enough.”
Meged, Miles City, Mont., is aboard a six-year-old horse that’s only been competing for two months, which is a short time for a young horse. Smoke, a sorrel gelding, has done well for his rider.
“I feel like he’s going to be really good and a real asset,” he said. Smoke will be his mount over the Fourth of July rodeo season, then he’ll go back to Beyonce, the black mare he won a world title on three years ago. She’s in the breeding barn now, but he plans to use her in in Ponoka, Alberta and the Calgary Stampede. And should Smoke falter, Beyonce is always ready to go.
In the last two months, Smoke has won money for Meged in Redding, Calif., at the Timed Event Challenge in Guthrie, Olka., and in Guymon, Okla..
Meged is working to put fewer miles on his horses. Beyonce is twelve years old, “in her prime age right now,” he said. Distributing his runs among his horses will make them last longer. “I’d really like to ride her on 25 or thirty runs per year, and ride something else.”
Ranked sixth in the PRCA world standings, Meged is comfortable with his performance up to this point, this year. “I’m in a good spot so far, I feel like, so I’d love to have the (National) Finals made after the Fourth of July, and then we can pick and choose” the rodeos he’ll enter, “and not have to drive all night.”
Other fast times after the day’s slack and the evening’s competition include steer wrestler Trell Etbauer, Goodwell, Okla. (4.5 seconds); saddle bronc rider Jacob Kammerer, Philip, S.D. (83 points); team ropers Jeff Johnston, Thedford, Neb. and Jett Hillman, McAlester, Okla. (5.5 seconds); breakaway roper Amber Carson, Grassy Butte, N.D. (3.0 seconds); and barrel racer Leslie Smalygo, Skiatook, Okla. (17.58 seconds). No bull riders made a qualified ride.
The third night of action at the Buffalo Bill rodeo takes place Friday, June 17 starting at 8 pm. The rodeo can be found on the Cowboy Channel app and on local radio station KODY 1240 AM.
- ### -
Results, 2nd Performance and slack, June 16, 2022
North Platte, Nebraska – Buffalo Bill Rodeo
Bareback riding
1. Ty Breuer, Mandan, N.D. 82 points on Belle Starr; 2. Tanner Aus, Granite Falls, Minn. 79; 3. Nate McFadden, Elsmere, Neb. 77; no other qualified rides.
Steer wrestling
1. Trell Etbauer, Goodwell, Okla. 4.5 seconds; 2. Joe Wilson, Martin, S.D. 4.6; 3. (tie) Austin Eller, Glendo, Wyo. and Gage Hesse, Keenesburg, Colo. 4.7 each.
Tie-down roping
1. Haven Meged, Miles City, Mont. 7.7 seconds; 2. Shad Mayfield, Clovis, N.M. 8.2; 3. (tie) Blane Cox, Cameron, Texas, and Tyler Milligan, Pawhuska, Okla. 8.3 each.
Saddle bronc riding
1. Jacob Kammerer, Philip, S.D. 83 points on #557 Homecoming; 2. (tie) Cole Elshere, Faith, S.D. and Jake Foster, Meadow, S.D. 80 each; 4. TW Flowers, Old Glory, Texas 75.5.
Team roping
1. Jeff Johnston, Thedford, Neb./Jett Hillman, McAlester, Okla. 5.5 seconds; 2. Chase Wiley, Pleasanton, Texas/Clay Green, Pine Grove, La. 6.3; 3. Clint Summers, Lake City, Fla./Ross Ashford, Lott, Texas 10.6; 4. Joe Macoubrie, Alva, Okla./Dawson McMaster, Madison, Kan. 15.0.
Barrel racing
1. Leslie Smalygo, Skiatook, Okla. 17.58 seconds; 2. Trula Churchill, Valentine, Neb. 17.64; 3. Paige Jones, Wayne, Okla. 17.72; 4. Korrina Hughes, Glenwood, Neb. 17.76.
Bull riding
No qualified rides.