Australian bull rider Ky Hamilton has been to four consecutive National Finals Rodeos starting in 2020 when he was a Resistol Rookie, however, leading up to the NFR in 2021, it looked a little different than the previous year.
It started when Hamilton had hip issues towards the end of his 2020 season. Dr. Tandy Freeman, with Justin Sportsmedicine, revealed that it would be something Hamilton would eventually deal whether he did it right away or waited.
“I decided just to see how long I could push it and just keep going about business. I went to a couple rodeos at the start of the year and wasn’t doing too bad and stuff. I think I got to The American (in 2021) and I didn’t ride either of my bulls there but once I had got off them I was having excruciating pain in my right hip,” he said.
This time, the pain did not go away and Hamilton turned out of everything he was entered in that week. It was then that he decided to have the surgery on his right hip. This sidelined him for three and a half months, and his return date was the summer run.
Hamilton didn’t cover a bull his first two weeks back and then he went to the Daddy of ‘Em All where things turned around. He cinched a coveted win in Cheyenne and things fell into place after that. He finished his summer run in a place that felt back on track until the second half of September.
After making an 89-point ride in Amarillo on the same bull that he won Cheyenne on, Hamilton took the lead in the performance that night and when he got up to drive to Omaha, Nebraska, he had a little pain in his hip.
That little pain would get worse quickly and turn out to be a blood infection, which he discovered after a visit with Justin Sportsmedicine when the pain got to the point that he could not walk. It was a Saturday night and Hamilton’s pain was only getting worse on top of other symptoms. He ended up going to the emergency room and would stay in Omaha longer than expected.
World Champion bareback riders Tim O’Connell and Jess Pope came through and O’Connell stayed in the hospital while Pope drove Hamilton’s rig.
“Tim spent a lot of days there helping me out, getting me food, trying to figure out what was going on because I was out of it. And then later on Cody Lambert flew up there and spent the last few days with me and turns out it was a blood infection,” he said.
After a total of a week and half spent in Omaha and Hamilton returned to Texas with Lambert to start recovery. It was a slow start to recovery until Lambert informed him that he better get on it because he was riding bulls at the Finals in Vegas.
“It was great to have [Lambert] around. He really helped find some sort of motivation to get up and get things going,” Hamilton said.
His rehab consisted of a lot of what he did previously in the year and riding practice bulls to build up his strength. When the time rolled around for him to head to Las Vegas, Hamilton would finish the season still inside the Top 10 in the World.
