Breuer eager to compete at National Finals Rodeo

Every young athlete aspires to be become great in their respective sport and make it to the top.
At just 23 years old, Mandan bareback rider Ty Breuer is making a name for himself.
Breuer finished seventh in the world standings for the 2013 season and earned a spot at the National Finals Rodeo which begins today in Las Vegas.
The NFR is the Super Bowl of rodeo and Breuer is the only North Dakota rider to qualify.
“I feel pretty lucky because I know there’s a lot of people that have the talent, but it just didn’t work out this year that they didn’t make it,” Breuer said. “I just feel pretty fortunate, lucky and blessed that I was able to make it this year.”
Since his 2010 rookie debut, Breuer has been working his way up to becoming a successful rider. He was the 2010 National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association champion while competing at Wyoming College and earned the PRCA’s Rookie Bareback Rider of the Year. This year, Breuer competed in nearly 80 rodeos and had 17 wins starting off with the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver, which helped him qualify for the NFR.
Although Breuer has been competing nonstop all year and has already started events for the 2014 season, the past few weeks he has been at home on his family’s cattle ranch relaxing and getting his mind off rodeo. For him, it’s the best way to prepare for the biggest rodeo of his season.
“Mostly I’ve been working,” Breuer said. “We ranch and I’ve just been spurring the spur board and working every day and that’s about it. I get to deer hunt, got a little deer hunting going on and staying in shape.”
Breuer and his family left for Las Vegas on Saturday. Ty and his younger brother, Casey, drove while their parents, Ed and Penny, flew and met them there. Ty and Casey are a unique combination.
Both brothers are bareback riders and travel together. Casey, 21, just graduated from Gillette College (Wyo.) and is entering his second year of professional rodeo.
Ty admitted the rodeo lifestyle of constantly traveling can - at times - be tough. However, having Casey compete in the same event makes the travel aspect a lot easier and less lonely.
“It’s pretty cool,” Ty said. “There’s families out there that rodeo, but not a whole lot, and it helps because whenever we drive home, we’re always going to the same place so it helps for driving or when we leave for the rodeo we always leave from here.”
Casey added: “It’s nice having Ty right here and we get to head out from the same spot. It’s like having a family member for a coach. You kind of can talk about (rodeo) whenever and we’re always going back and forth telling each other what we think and watch tape and ride the spur board together, and help each other out all along the way. If we didn’t live together, that wouldn’t happen and I don’t know if we would be where we are today if we weren’t competitive.”
The state of North Dakota will undoubtedly be cheering on Ty today in hopes of taking home a world title. Although Ty hasn’t competed or focused on rodeo the past two weeks, he said it hasn’t made his competition any weaker.
If anything, the long wait has made him more aggressive as all that stands between him and the championship are the horses he’ll draw.
“The last two weekends were the first two weekends I wasn’t at rodeo all year and that I haven’t been getting on bareback horses, so it was kind of nice to get away from it for awhile,” he said. “But now it makes me more hungry to get out there and win again.”