TiAda Gray hustled towards a photo finish in Sioux Falls for the regular season that ended with the Texas cowgirl locking in her first qualification to the National Finals Breakaway Roping.
“I was just going to take it one rodeo at a time and just kind of see how it went. If it was going great, we’d keep going and if it wasn’t, we’d pump the breaks a little bit but I was glad I held through to the end,” Gray said.
Part of what got Gray to Las Vegas is her horsepower, a gelding called Coon. She has had him for two years and although she said he was green when she got him, he has really stepped up. The other aspect of breakaway that can make or break it, is the cattle and knowing how to read them.
“Oh, it’s a lot, the draw is a lot, especially in our game when you do have to be so fast so when you do get a good one, you have to take advantage of the situation,” she said.
As she looks forward to November, Gray’s preparation includes practice and ridiing different horses to make sure Coon’s backup is just as ready for the call.
Gray enters the South Point as the No. 13 ranked breakaway roper in the world.
