8 seconds FOR CLOSURE Late teenage Big Piney bull rider is celebrated at Jackson Hole Rodeo.
By Chance Q. Cook
T
aytan Wing was not at the Teton County Fairgrounds on Aug. 1, 2020, but not a cowboy or a judge present could say his bull ride wasn’t damn near flawless. Before the rodeo got started, after his little sister, Bailey, brought the flag out into the arena for its opening, Wing’s family and friends gathered behind the chutes. They strapped Wing’s chaps onto the back of a bull, opened the gate and let out yips and hollers, traded back slaps and hugs as the bull spun and bucked. The chaps stayed on all eight seconds. “That’s what we wanted,” Wing’s stepfather Chris Meeks said. “To send him off.” That night was a celebration of Wing’s life. The Big Piney bull rider, football player and wrestler died the previous April, just shy of his 17th birthday. Along with his accomplishments on the turf and the mat, Wing was cutting his teeth as a bull rider at the Jackson Hole Rodeo the past few summers, like most of the other young men who suit up behind the chutes and get their turn in the arena. For his family the rodeo is where it made sense to celebrate a life cut short. A special buckle was made for the winner of bull riding that night, emblazoned with Taytan’s name, a set of wings, a bull and a cross. An extra $500 went on top of the champion’s earnings. “We were kind of like, well he’s really good at football, really good at wrestling,” Meeks said. “We were going to do a scholarship deal, but at the same time he hated school. … Why don’t we give somebody a buckle and some money? They can do what they want with it.” Wing died from an accidental gunshot wound in mid-April. It was 26
KATHRYN ZIESIG / NEWS&GUIDE
Briggs Madsen, center, the winning bull rider of the night, poses for a photo with Misty and Chris Meeks, while holding the first Taytan Wing Memorial belt buckle. Misty and Chris are the parents of Taytan Wing, a bull rider who died in April 2020. Wing rode in the Jackson Hole Rodeo the past few years to learn the sport.
Meeks who found him. “It was just a tragedy. He got killed, Easter Sunday. Well, he was still alive but he died the day after Easter,” Meeks said. “He got killed on my birthday, and we buried him on his 17th birthday.” Wing’s funeral was April 25, more than a month into the heart of the coronavirus outbreak. His obituary says the service was to be held in the pasture next to his family’s house, where visitors could pay their respects from their cars for the service. “We couldn’t have the funeral. You had to have only 10 people, and they had to wear masks and all that,” Meeks said. “We had it right out in the yard. The whole crew was there, probably 500 people showed up. “I said, ‘We’re having a ... damn funeral.’ We pulled a flatbed trailer out there, and I stood up there and talked, and gave the Cowboy Spirit
at the beginning of it. … Everybody showed up.” The last flight of bull riding that August night was sure to be where the champion was going to come from, with a stacked field of cowboys who’ve spent summer nights learning the craft just as Wing did. Kade Madsen shot into the lead, scoring an 85 atop 98 Trick Daddy. Payton Nelson, a Utah cowboy who has lit up the Jackson Hole Rodeo this year, matched his 85 atop 521 Whiskey River. The final go of the night belonged to Briggs Madsen, the 20-yearold Utahn who said he’d just come back from his mission trip to South Carolina. His bull, 306 Conspiracy Theory, one of the better bulls the rodeo offers, came out spinning and kicking, and Madsen matched every move. With eight seconds passed, the announcer didn’t need to wait
2021 ROUNDUP SOUVENIR PROGRAM
