A Cayley-Meadowbank barrel racer showed plenty of heart in winning at what is her virtually her hometown rodeo.
“I’ve had a rough year, I had open-heart surgery in February — this is my first win of they year, so it’s a big deal to me,” said 20-year-old Eryn Coy. “I have really worked on my riding to get things going and it paid off.”
Coy won the ladies barrel racing at the Millarville Rodeo in 16.37s on Sunday.
Coy, a graduate of High River’s Notre Dame Collegiate, had heart surgery for a condition she’d had since being a young girl. She originally was supposed to have the operation when she was 16, but was able to put it off until last February.
“I was trying this new horse and I felt really sick,” she said. “I went to my cardiologist and he gave me a stress test and after two minutes, he said ‘you aren’t going to school, you aren’t doing anything — you are having surgery,’ that was last December.”
The surgery was successful, and although the effervescent Coy was optimistic, she wasn’t sure she would be able to turn barrels.
“I took it day by day and told myself not to push too hard,” Coy said. “My first few weeks on a horse were a bit rough.”
She turned to an old friend for Millarville, using her horse from her high school rodeo days, Dagwood.
“My old faithful,” she said with a laugh.
Coy is in sixth place in the Foothills Cowboy Association standings.
More importantly she is on the road to recovery.
“I went back to my cardiologist and they say things are healed up well, you look good. Just listen to your body if something doesn’t feel right, stop,” said Coy, who rodeos for the Western Oklahoma State College Pioneers.
She feels great and doesn’t plan on stopping especially after winning Millarville.
“This is definitely a confidence builder — getting over the hump, finally something is working out,” Coy said. “Hopefully, this sets me up to go back to school and college rodeo down south.”
Season leader
A Holy Trinity Academy grad had the great Guess Who hit — No Time — at the Millarville Rodeo, but he still tops the charts in steer wrestling in the FCA standings.
“I’m sitting first in the CCA (Chinook Cowboy Association) and I think I am first in the FCA,” said Riley Westhaver.
He is competing in an alphabet soup of rodeo tours, the CCA, the LRA and the FCA in his first full year of bulldogging.
“I’m back from college and I thought I should get it going,” said Westhaver, who just completed his second-year with the Northwest Oklahoma State University Rangers.
Westhaver got introduced to the horse world when his parents moved to the Gladys Ridge area after both were raised in the city. Riley started roping and eventually got into bulldogging.
Holy Trinity Academy Knight rugby fans will remember the days of legendary coach Joe Buck yelling “Westeee” as he pulled down another opponent.
His rugby days has helped his bulldogging.
“They both are part of the aggression thing,” Westhaver said. “In rugby, you have to give a hit take a hit. In steer wrestling, if you get a steer who wants to fight back, you have to fight harder.”
(In 2015, Westhaver steer wrestled in the high school rodeo finals in Grande Prairie, then flew to Edmonton the next morning for rugby provincials with HTA. He then flew back to GP to finish third in the province in steer wrestling).
He had a rough go in Millarville. The steer settled in the chute and Westhaver and his horse Earl waited patiently.
“That steer was all locked up and it was a struggle to get him out,” the 20-year-old Westhaver said. “Once he came out, he turned left which is hard for a bulldogging horse to get around.”
Westhaver dove for the steer, but, like another hit, he was Another one bit the dust.
He is hoping Millarville and the FCA is a steppingstone to bigger things.
“I want to be in the world finals – the NFR,” he said with a smile. “But there is no reason to turn pro too early and spend all that money and not make any money. Just hold off in buying a pro card.”
