Tyler Kippes rides a bull during a past rodeo. He was hit in the heart by a bull last year at Austin Rodeo and needed heart repair surgery.
Bill Lawless/Provided by Tyler Kippes
When Tyler Kippes heard the name of the bull he would be riding at Rodeo Austin on March 24, 2025, his first thought was “Man, that doesn’t sound very cool.”
Demon Dancing was known as an “eliminator-type” bull, said Kippes, 22. “Nobody stayed on him. I knew he bucked really hard.”
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Dr. William Kessler of Ascension Seton Medical Center repaired Tyler Kippes’ tricuspid valve in a surgery that preserved Kippes’ ability to ride bulls.
Matt Hooker/Dell Medical School
Dr. William Kessler kids around with bull rider Tyler Kippes as Kippes is about to be released from Ascension Seton Medical Center last year.
Matt Hooker/Dell Medical School
Dr. William Kessler’s teams have written papers about the injury bull rider Tyler Kippes suffered and the repair to the tricuspid valve at Ascension Seton Medical Center last year.
Matt Hooker/Dell Seton Medical Center
Tyler Kippes has been riding bull since he was 8. He turned professional at 19 and has broken multiple bones, lost teeth and had a tear in his heart.
Provided by Tyler Kippes
Professional bull riders need the difficult bulls to earn more points, and they must stay on them for eight second. Points mean a bigger potential payout.
“You want the ones that buck the hardest,” Kippes said, but that also means the bull has more control. The rider tries to gain control by matching the rhythm of the bull’s bucks so the bull doesn’t throw him off.
“It’s a dogfight every time you get on one,” said Kippes, who grew up in Colorado and now lives in Stephenville, near Fort Worth. “You’re not really trying to fight against him. You’re trying to be loose and cool with authority and trying to match what they are giving you.”
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When Kippes mounted Demon Dancing, the bull was leaning on him, pinning one leg against the box. Kippes was struggling to position himself.
When the chute opened, Demon Dancing took off and bucked to push Kippes backwards. Then he bucked again and Kippes flew over the bull’s horns.
One horn hit Kippes squarely in the heart. Kippes suffered a blunt-force injury similar to being struck in the exact right spot by a hockey puck or baseball. And Kippes’ heart had to be contracting at the exact moment the horn struck. The force tore part of his heart muscle, damaging his tricuspid valve. It also collapsed his lung and broke several ribs.
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“I don’t remember much besides getting whacked really hard,” Kippes said. “I felt like the wind was knocked out of me.”
That feeling had happened many times in his life, Kippes said. He has ridden bulls since he was 8, and turned professional at 19. But this time was different. Kippes passed out and was carried out of the arena on a stretcher.
When he came around, Kippes thought he could drive himself to the hospital to get checked out, but the rodeo sports trainer told him it could be life or death and that he should take the ambulance.
Kippes was having a hard time breathing, but there wasn’t any blood or other obvious signs of trauma.
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Tyler Kippes points to his heart, which has been repaired after a bull hit him so hard, it tore his tricuspid valve.
Matt Hooker/Dell Seton Medical Center
Preparing for surgery
At first Kippes arrived at Dell Seton Medical Center, Austin’s highest level trauma hospital. After doctors there determined he was stable, he was moved to Ascension Seton Medical Center, which has the highest level of cardiac care in the Ascension Seton system.
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At first, Kippes was given two options for his tricuspid valve: replace it with a pig valve or a mechanical valve. The pig valve might allow him to ride bulls again, but it would have to be replaced every 10 years. The mechanical valve would require him to be on blood thinners, which would end his bull riding career.
Then Dr. William Kessler, a surgeon at the Institute for Cardiovascular Health, a clinical partnership between Ascension Seton and UT Health Austin, took another look at Kippes’ case.
There wasn’t any data about what to do in a case like Kippes’ because it was so rare. Kessler, whose mother was from a ranch in Alberta, Canada, knew about people who participate in rodeo.
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“I know the mentality well,” he said.
“The majority of people would have looked at him and said, ‘tricuspid valve replacement,'” Kessler said. “But this kid’s a rodeo bull rider. Something like that is going to alter his life. He wouldn’t be able to ride again because the rodeo wouldn’t want to deal with the liability.”
Kessler decided to try to stitch the tricuspid valve back together and reattach it to the heart muscle.
Kippes gave the plan his approval. “Let’s do it, Doc. Let’s go,” Kessler remembers Kippes telling him.
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The heart muscle fit back together perfectly, Kessler said, and Kippes is fully recovered. “He has just the same risk as any other bull rider for re-injuring that,” Kessler said.
Kippes was able to leave the hospital on April 1, but he was out for the season while his sternum healed after being opened during surgery.
Dr. William Kessler’s teams have written papers about the injury bull rider Tyler Kippes suffered and the repair to the tricuspid valve at Ascension Seton Medical Center last year.
M. HOOKER/Provided by Tyler Kippes
Recovering from the blow
The time off allowed Kippes to heal the broken ribs he had from this injury, as well as fix his jaw and teeth from another injury. In his career, Kippes has had two hip surgeries, broken both arms, both legs, a foot, fractured his neck, injured his knee and has slipped discs.
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“Everyone is going to get injured,” he said of bull riding. “It’s not a matter of when, it’s a matter of how bad.”
His mother really wanted him to hang his hat after the heart injury, but she came to understand that being a bull rider is who he is.
Bull riding teaches resilience and perseverance, he said. “It taught me how to deal with the highs and lows of life. You really have to mature and grow up a lot faster.”
He concedes that there’s nothing very mature about deciding to sleep until noon every day, get in the van to go to the next place, arrive at the arena just before your ride, and then mount a 2,000-pound bull.
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The injuries, especially this one, have “given me deeper meaning and a deeper appreciation. You’re not entitled to something in your life.”
While he was convalescing, he took his first vacation — a trip to Destin, Florida — and spent the summer in Tennessee with his fiancee’s family.
He took a lot of naps and watched a lot of streaming TV.
It took a while for Tyler Kippes to understand the damage Demon Dancing had done when the bull’s horn hit him hard in the chest. He had heart surgery to repair his tricuspid valve.
Provided by Tyler Kippes
Preparing to get back on the bull
By September, Kippes was cleared to start working out again. He began building muscles, especially in his core. In November, he began riding practice bulls.
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On Dec. 31, he entered the arena again at the Xtreme Bulls event in Topeka, Kansas. Kippes was nervous for the first time. He reminded himself: “Kessler said everything is going to be good.”
Then in January, he competed at the National Western Stock Show in Denver. On his second ride, he tore his groin muscle, but he hasn’t been bucked since Demon Dancing.
Kippes wasn’t chosen to ride in this year’s Rodeo Austin, because selection is based on points, and he hasn’t ridden enough to earn them. He’s an alternate, though.
He plans to return to the arena in the coming weeks in Oregon, if he isn’t called up to Austin.
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“I feel like my big break is coming soon,” he said.
Tyler Kippes expects to return again to the rodeo arena after recovering for his latest injury. This time it was just a pulled groin, not a torn heart.
Provided by Tyler Kippes
Rodeo Austin
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Daily rodeo at 7 p.m. except at 3 p.m. Sundays; fairgrounds open at 10 a.m.; concert following the rodeo
Travis County Expo Center, 9100 Decker Lake Road
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