Cayla Small was injured in the fall and told not to get on the back of a horse until January 20. But when she drew up at the Denver National Western Stock Show and Rodeo on January 11, the 2016 WPRA Rookie of the Year had to cut her recovery time down.

Small is full of laughs, likes to make fun of herself, and doesn’t seem to take life too seriously; but there’s an underlying toughness in the cowgirl who rides colts and competes when her collar bone hasn’t quite healed after being pieced back together with plates and screws.

“I hadn’t ridden anything for a while," Small said. "I technically wasn’t supposed to be riding until ten days after my first go at Denver, so I‘d rode him a little bit and my mom had kept him in shape for me, thank goodness."

Both Small and her good horse "Shameon U” AKA “Gator” suffered injuries last year. In the spring, Gator got a quarter crack in his hoof that’s healing process was extended by infection, sidelining the dun gelding for the season.

It’s hard to say how you could laugh at breaking your collar bone in three places, but Small seems to pull it off as she recounts the freak accident that caused her own injury.

“I was just riding a colt with about five rides on her and she bucked me off…” Small said before laughing. “Well, okay, so you couldn’t touch her butt and I touched her butt when I went to get on her.

“I had a stocking cap on, and [when the horse jumped from Small touching her hind end] she whiplashed my head and the stocking cap covered my eyes. I panicked,” she said.

“I can't see, I can't see, Zac I can’t see!”

“Well pull her up,” said her husband as he watched the colt buck.

“I can’t pull her up, I can't see, I can't think,” said Small, who was worried about the colt bucking out the open gate and towards the highway near their arena in Speedwell, Tennessee. Because she still couldn’t see, her husband recounts Small flying high in the air before coming back down with a thud that broke her collar bone into pieces.  

Gator was now ready to begin exercising again after eight months off, but Small was headed to surgery to put the piece of collar bone that was now floating around her ribs back in place and plate it all back together.

So you’d think when they hit the arena at Denver the two might be a little rusty, but the pair came out and rattled off a 15.39 second run that still sits in second spot in the first round.

Ever the competitor, Small talks about her tendency to push too hard in the second round of a multi-run rodeo and the wisdom shared by her husband, 2016 WNFR team roping qualifier Zac Small.

“I have a tendency for my second round to always try to go faster than my first round, and generally I probably go fast enough the first round that on an average I should try to just go the same speed and not faster,” Small said. “Zac kept calling me and telling me (to) ‘just be smooth, don’t try to go fast,’ so when I was going down the alleyway I thought, ‘Just go around the barrels, don’t go fast’.”

Consistency is now paying off for Small, who clocked in at 15.37 seconds, is leading the second round, and No. 1 in the average with a total time of 30.76 seconds on two.

With just a few days left in the long rounds, other leaders at the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver include:

• Nate McFadden leads the average in the bareback riding with a combined score of 168.5 points on two. 
• The steer wrestling is led by Taz Olsen with a combined time of 8.0 seconds on two.
• Zeke Thurston, the 2016 world champion, leads the way in the saddle bronc riding with a score of 170 points on two. 
• Lightning Aguilera and Brady Norman were 10.1 seconds after two rounds of team roping to lead the average.
• The tie-down roping is led by Jerome Schneeberger, who tied his two calves in 16.0 seconds and is just ahead of reigning world champion Marcos Costa with his time of 16.3 on two. 
• Ty Wallace is No. 1 in the bull riding average with 173.5 points on two rides.

For the full results, click here and here.