Kasey Hayes
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Kasey Hayes (born August 16, 1985) is a professional bull rider on the PBR's Built Ford Tough Series (BFTS) tour. Kasey is one of the few riders to come on tour for the first time and win his first event that same weekend (that being the 2006 Tulsa Express PBR Classic in Tulsa, OK). He currently resides in Liberal, Kansas.
[edit] Biography
- (Courtesy of PBRNow.com)
Raised in the plains of western Kansas, Kasey Hayes topped his first steer at the age of 9. “My dad used to ride bulls but he didn’t pressure me to start riding really young. So, when I was 9, I told him I wanted to try it, and he helped me learn the basics.” With the guidance of his father, Hayes progressed to junior bulls and then big bulls. He won the bull riding title in the Kansas High School Rodeo Association his senior year after finishing as reserve champion the two years prior.
The most serious injury of his career came at the age of 12 at an open bull riding in Kingman, Kansas. “The bull jerked me down and we hit head to head. I got a concussion and it fractured my skull. The injury only put me out for two weeks but I had to ride with a face mask, and I’ve been wearing it ever since.”
One of a few PBR bull riders to win the first Built Ford Tough Series event he attended, Hayes took Tulsa by storm in July of 2006. “I went in to Tulsa thinking it was just another bull riding. I just drew the right bulls and took it one ride at a time.” The strategy paid off as the Kansas cowboy won the the third round on Page & Teague’s Wild One with a 90-point ride, and earned more than $36,000 for the event championship.
He is a 2-time qualifier to the PBR World Finals (2006, 2007). In the 2007 season Kasey finished in 12th overall for the standings. As of 5/2/2008 his career riding percentage is 35.3%.
He has three PBR BFTS titles to his name: Tulsa, OK (2006), Atlanta, GA (2007), and Winston-Salem, NC (2008).
At the 2008 BFTS event in Des Moines, Iowa, Kasey was thrown hard, head-first, to the ground by D & H Cattle Company bull Page 499, and suffered a broken neck as a result. He will be out for the next 3 to 6 months.
