story by Gigi Robey
Ty Aymond, an 8th grader from Pine Prairie. Louisiana, has a whole team of people helping him.
His family, which includes mom (Vickie), dad (Eric), uncle (Kade Busby), and a family friend, Brent Nugent, who lets him ride his horse, Flash, make up the immediate team.
Brent has let 13-year-old Ty borrow his horse for team roping this year after Ty’s good horse, Furby, was crippled by getting kicked inside the trailer and getting a bone infection right before nationals.
He was still able to still compete at Nationals, but unfortunately may never be able to compete with Furby again. After two months of giving him shots to help him, the family isn’t sure that Furby will ever get better.
But Ty is very thankful that Brent has let him use Flash in his time of need, as well as help him with heeling. His mom and dad always drive him to rodeos, Eric also helps him practice with Ty’s uncle, Kade Busby; they help him practice every night, weather permitting, his dad always helps by telling him what he’s doing wrong, and when he can’t explain it Kade can normally step in and help explain things better. Due to all the recent rain, he hasn’t been able to practice, but when the arena is dry they rope steers and calves. “I like to work on my horses, and me. I see what I do wrong and try to fix it.” He also rides a horse named Tuesday for calf roping.
Before each rodeo he ropes the dummy then visualizes his run and thinks about what he has to do. He prefers to draw up in the middle or last, he does not like to go first, and would rather rope slow cattle so he can rope faster. He is excited for the upcoming fall semester with LJHSRA, because it will be his 8th grade year and he is going to enter tie-down roping this year.
His goal this year is to qualify for Nationals in all three of his events: tie down roping, team roping, and ribbon roping. In the past he has made it to nationals in breakaway and team roping with Brad Hesnor. Due to Brad moving up to high school, Ty will heel for Kade Busby this year.
Ty took after his dad with team roping, he started out when he was 7 going to a local riding club every two weeks for kids rodeos, then started heeling because his dad was always a header and that way they could rope together. Little brother, Brayden (11), will get to compete in junior high rodeos this year as well and will compete in breakaway, on the horse Ty was competing on. His sister, Ericka (16) does not rodeo.
“Gonzales is my favorite rodeo, I like the arena and there is a big warm up pen.” He is going to strive to catch every steer and calf. His idol is Junior Nogueira, PRCA team roper, “I want to rope like him! He can takes shots that other ropers can’t.” Other than rodeos, Ty enjoy hunting, fishing, riding his four-wheeler, working cows, and shooting his bow and shotgun. He attends Bayou Chicot Elementary, and since he has to get up early and study he isn’t too wild about it, but does like lunch so he can visit with friends. He considers his dad and Uncle Kade to be his heroes, one day he would like to be a manager of a lumber yard like his dad.
