Hayden’s Keenan Hayes Wins World Bareback Title
Steamboat has another world champion in its midst, and though his name isn’t Billy Kidd, he wears the same kind of hat as the accolades come from the back of a horse instead of the ski hill. In December, Hayden native Keenan Hayes, at age 20, won the world bareback riding title at the Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association World Championships in Las Vegas. A fifth-generation Routt County cowboy, Hayes went into the national finals ranked number one, with a PRCA record of 57 eight-second rides of 85 points or more. The 5’6”, 160-lb. rider became the second Routt County resident to win the title, following J.C. Trujillo, who won the bareback world champion title in 1981. “What he’s done has never been done before,” said Trujillo of Hayes’ remarkable season. So, some of those cowboy hats you see around town aren’t just for show.
