Eight seconds mean everything to Cayson Hall.
“I just love the rush and the feeling of riding your bull,” said the 15-year-old from Missouri, explaining his love of competitive bull riding, which requires staying on a bucking bull for eight seconds. “And hearing the crowd cheers is one of the best parts about it, knowing people are watching you doing what you love.”
Cayson’s passion overrides the risks he became intimately aware of after roughly seven months of bull riding.
On March 9, 2024, during a junior bull riding competition in Natural Dam, Ark., Cayson was bucked off his bull, a horn smashing into his throat. While his skin was not punctured, “his airway was completely exploded,” explained his stepmother, Ashlee Hall.
Over the course of a year and a half of 11 surgeries and rehabilitation, Cayson had one persistent question: “When can I get on another bull?”
But for his family, the only question that mattered was whether Cayson would survive and thrive. Thanks to Arkansas Children’s pediatric ENT specialist Andre’ M. Wineland, M.D., and his team, the answer was yes.
Read the full story on the Arkansas Children’s Hospital website.