Feild back in the saddle, again
After injury-plagued year, four-time PRCA bareback riding champ ready for Houston
The name is rodeo royalty.
So why can’t — even after all these years — a lot of people spell it? Kaycee Feild just laughs.
His late father Lewis was a rodeo legend, winning the all-around title three years in a row. And Kaycee? He’s a four-time national PRCA bareback riding champion and a legend himself — at the age of 32.
So how many times do people misspell Feild?
“Nine out of 10,’’ he chuckles. “Some of it is auto-correct, so it’s not always their fault. But even my good friends kid me about it. It’s non-stop.’’
One thing no one kids him about is his ability to elevate the sport by making almost every ride look seamless. No matter what horse he draws.
Especially in Houston. Feild, one of the circuit’s most likable guys, won his fifth bareback title in eight years at Rodeo Houston with a 92-point ride — one point short of his arena record of 93, which he set in 2012 and equaled in 2014.
No one kids him about how tough he is, either.
Feild is ready for this year’s Rodeo Houston, but the last year has been — shall we say — challenging. One that included a fractured skull, a fractured upper and lower jaw, a fractured nasal cavity, a concussion and a small brain bleed, and two wear-and-tear disk injuries.
That might be enough to make some contemplate retirement.
But not Feild, who’s finally healthy and looking forward to Houston, which he said, “is a great place to start coming back from some time off.’’
Time off? That’s an understatement.
Two weeks after his Houston win — Feild exited the event atop the national standings with a commanding lead — he was lying in a hospital bed in Austin with that fractured skull, a fractured upper and lower jaw, a fractured nasal
cavity, a concussion and a small brain bleed.
Three months later, he was back competing.
“It was hard to figure out, but it was more motivation to come back and say to myself I can do this. I can do this,’’ he said.
The long year started March 30 at Rodeo Austin, when Feild drew a world champion mare named Killer Bee — a horse he had been wanting to ride for years. After putting up a score of 87, he sat forward, and she pulled him down.
“I hit my head on my riggin’ and when I hit the ground, she kicked me on top of the head.’’ he said. “I was in ICU for a few days. I don’t really remember a whole lot about the ride or a few days after, but I haven’t had one symptom since.’’
He credits part of his recovery to CBD oil, a product he sells through his company PWR Pro.
“The research with CBD and brain injuries was significant,’’ he said. “As soon as I could, I got my CBD and instantly started feeling better.’’
Long journey
But there was still a long way to go.
“I came home and slept and slept for two weeks,’’ he said. “I’d sleep 10 or 12 hours and it wasn’t enough. I would just sit in the house and keep everything dark. It was a weird injury. Like a broken arm or a broken leg, you can feel when you’re pushing it too much.
“With a brain injury, you feel OK and so you walk 200 yards. You feel good and think you can do more, so you walk another go another 200 yards and the next day that 400 yards is the worst headache you can ever imagine.’’
A month into his recovery, he went to the University of Utah for a scan, and the doctor was amazed.
“He looked at it and couldn’t believe it,’’ Feild said. “There was no sign of injury or scar tissue or inflammation. It healed perfectly. I was very lucky.”
By July 4, he was riding in competition again, and he “rodeoed” through August when — through simple wear and tear — he ruptured a disk in his lower back and on in his neck.
“I had to take the rest of the year off,’’ he said. “I only competed in 28 rodeos last year so I wasn’t on top of my game like I wanted to be going into the (Wrangler National Rodeo) finals in Las Vegas, but at the same time, I didn’t want to get on any practice horses because I didn’t want to get any bumps and bruises before,’’ he said.
He rode well considering, then went to Fort Worth the first week in February when he reinjured the disk in his back in the bucking chute.
So, he took a little more time off and went Tijuana, Mexico, to see a doctor he’s been working with since undergoing hip surgery in 2012.
“I got stem cells in my lower back and my elbow where I’ve been sore,’’ he said. “It’s been almost a whole week, and I feel really good.’’
Houston, which is one of his favorite places to ride, awaits. He brings his family — wife Stephanie, daughters Chaimberlyn (6) and Remi (17 months) and son Huxyn (4) — and they turn it into a fun week complete with Pappadeaux’s crawfish and corn dogs and fried Oreos at NRG.
He hasn’t been on a horse since Fort Worth, but he’s staying in shape working out on a spur board and a bucking machine.
A simple style
Feild grew up watching his dad. When he was younger, he raced BMX bikes, road dirt bikes, hunted, skied and wakeboarded.
“All that adrenalin stuff,’’ he said. “I loved it.’’
But by his teens, Feild was focused on following in the footsteps of his dad Lewis, who died in 2016.
“By the time I was 15 or 16, I wanted to be a national champion,’’ he said. “I roped through college and rode some bulls, but I was terrified.’’
So, he focused on bareback riding and made his Houston debut as a teenager in 2006.
He said the key to his style is simple.
“It’s beating them to the ground and making it look easy,’’ he said. “Make every horse look the same. Ride the buckers just like you ride the hoppers. And there are some young guys who can do it right now.
“And, I was taught at a young age is when you start feeling it in those pressure situations, use it to your advantage. Those butterflies. That’s a good feeling. Use that for your fuel. And in pressure situations like Houston or San Antonio or Calgary where you’re getting the best bucking horses at the rodeo and there’s 80,000 people screaming ... It’s a whole new ballgame. You’re dealing with emotions that you don’t get anywhere else. To capitalize on that and win, it’s an amazing feeling, that’s an amazing accomplishment to control that situation.’’
Feild turns 33 this year, and he plans to ride a couple more seasons. He has his eye on Bobby Mote’s NFR record of most round wins (27) — Feild has 25 — and he’d love a fifth world title.
“I want to finish this game on top,’’ he said. “I want to be a very dominant rider when I retire.
“(And when he retires, it will have been) 15-16 years of it and that will be enough on my body. There are some guys who will go 'til they’re 40, but I don’t want to be that guy who has to keep going.’’
As for the Feild legacy? Chaimberlyn loves to ride her horse, and Huxyn is already riding his pony with a bareback rigging.
“I don’t expect it, but if they want (to compete), I’ll be behind them,’’ he said.
Maybe by then auto-correct will be able to recognize and spell Feild.
Then again, maybe not.