Cooper Filipek had a weird gut feeling he shouldn’t get on the Canadian bucking horse he drew at the Cache County Fair & Rodeo in Logan, Utah, in August.
He couldn’t find any stats on her. But Filipek, 23, was going to be in Logan anyway with his traveling partner Kooper Heimburg, like Filipek a former national collegiate champion.
Filipek was rising fast in professional bareback riding — already in the top 35 in the world less than a year after winning a national title for Gillette College.
He’d put up 88.5 points this summer at Cheyenne Frontier Days and posted scores of 87 and 86.5 to win big rodeos in Jackson, Mississippi, and Pleasant Grove, Utah.
But Filipek, a native of Rapid City, South Dakota, wasn’t just the sport’s biggest young phenom because of his great rides. “Coop” was fast becoming famous thanks to his trademark yellow cowboy hat, which stands out like his fearless personality.
When the chute gate opened that night in Logan, Filipek started a spur-ride that could easily have reached the high 80s.
But about five seconds in, the mare named Lone Star hopped with all four feet and threw herself into a lateral somersault. She rolled clean over him, smashing Filipek before he rode her back up.
But then Filipek fell to the ground and lay motionless, beating the arena floor with his hands to let people know he needed help.
“The rollover happened in such a quick, uncontrollable way,” he told rodeo writer Kendra Santos afterward. “All of a sudden, I was underneath her. After that, it felt like someone ran over me with a car.
"It was a blessing that riggin' didn’t kill me. It smashed my left thigh, but it didn’t go into my chest.”
A young superstar with big dreams knew his back was broken, but didn’t know his riding hand was also fractured.
He remembers being able to move his toes. But the audience who watched the wreck broadcast live — including Filipek’s friends — spent days fearing paralysis.
Gillette College bareback rider Cooper Filipek, 23, was a rising rodeo star when his career was abruptly interrupted when a horse rolled over him and broke his back during a bareback ride in August. (Getty Images) 
A donated plane to brink Cooper Filipek home. (Getty Images) 
Gillette College bareback rider Cooper Filipek, 23, was a rising rodeo star when his career was abruptly interrupted when a horse rolled over him and broke his back during a bareback ride in August. (Getty Images) 
Gillette College bareback rider Cooper Filipek, 23, was a rising rodeo star when his career was abruptly interrupted when a horse rolled over him and broke his back during a bareback ride in August. (Getty Images)
You'll Never Ride Again
Filipek underwent surgery at Intermountain Health Logan Regional Hospital to stabilize the shattered L5 vertebrae in his lower back and clean up bone fragments in the L4, L6 and L7 areas around it.
Later, one of the two 12-inch rods shifted and a second surgery was necessary.
The young athlete could walk, but he wound up with three huge incisions in his back, a 7-inch screw in his hip and a half-dozen more in his back. The doctor told him he’d never ride again.
Still unable to endure the 11-hour drive home to Gillette, he spent two more weeks at the Sunshine Terrace nursing home in Logan.
Filipek, who’d taught himself guitar via YouTube, found an instrument at the nursing home and began playing for the old folks. The medical staff would wheel their memory-care patients out for sun and song from the young cowboy.
He was a huge hit.
“It was the first time I’d ever played in front of people,” he said.
Later, he discovered that Lone Star had flipped on other riders in Canada. Filipek grimaces when he recalls that her owner offered to pay his entry fees.
However, the rodeo committee in Logan rallied around the popular athlete. Led by the efforts of John Growney and Jay Jenks, LaMont Poulsen flew Filipek back to Gillette in a private plane.
He’d already ditched his walker. But back in Wyoming seven weeks later, he’s saddled with a large brace and remains weak.
He has more than two long months to wait before the hardware is removed and he can start physical therapy in December.
“Patience has really been key,” he said. “I’ve had to get used to being slow. I’m far from the lazy type who can lay around.”
Filipek lives with his dog, Daisy, about 15 miles north of Gillette amid the pine trees and red hills where he’d moved while working for a ranch nearby. His house is already full of trophies, including the oversized check for $25,000 he won at a Canadian rodeo in May.
He’s unable to kneel or get up easily. He can’t get a sock on one foot himself. Everything is uncomfortable — standing, sitting, lying down.
By the end of the day, his legs are killing him. He gets super tired.
X-rays show the pins stabilizing Cooper Filipek's spine after a rodeo accident broke his back. (Getty Images) 
After suffering a broken back during a rodeo competition, Gillette resident Cooper Filipek has turned to the other passion in his life while recovering — music. (Getty Images) 
Cooper Filipek at the CNFR with Gillette College coaches Will La Duke and Casey Rae Sellers, aliong with Marvin Garrett. (Getty Images) 
Gillette College bareback rider Cooper Filipek, 23, was a rising rodeo star when his career was abruptly interrupted when a horse rolled over him and broke his back during a bareback ride in August. (Getty Images)
Yellow Boots Awaiting Him
Still, his multiple pairs of exotic yellow cowboy boots stand near the door, waiting to be filled again.
Filipek was a Packers fan as a little boy, and his dad, Casey, made him his first pair of chaps with some yellow scrap leather. Wearing those, Cooper won six high school rodeos in a row.
“My mom said, ‘Don’t you know yellow is bad luck in rodeo?’" he recalled. "And I said, ‘Apparently it’s not!’”
Adorned in the color, he went on to sweep his state finals in high school during an era when he was also bullfighting, which he was still doing on occasion “just for fun."
Then someone custom-made him a short-brimmed yellow felt hat, which he wore for the first time at Denver’s National Western in 2024 — and put up 86 points to win the round as a permit-holder.
“I put on all the yellow so they know who the heck I am,” Filipek said of the long slog most pro bareback riders endure before judges recognize their names and start awarding them more points.
But it’s not just pro rodeo officials who know his name now – it’s rodeo fans across the country. He’s still astounded at the “insane” number of texts, calls and messages he continues to get from well-wishers.
“I guess I have more impact on a lot of people than I thought,” he said. “I sure appreciate it.”
Fans watching rodeo live on cable’s Cowboy Channel can sense Filipek eats and breathes his passion.
Like other sports stars, he was always first to the arena to get on the bucking machine, and constantly worked at his sport. By this summer, Filipek said he’d gotten to the point where, like rodeo Hall-of-Famer Ty Murray once said, everything slows down.
“I felt like I could ride 97% of broncs, and was able to readjust at any point,” he said.
Gillette College’s head coach Casey Rae Sellers arrived as an assistant the same year Filipek came to Gillette.
“Cooper has a lot of style and is hard not to watch — he catches your eye,” said Sellers. “And he was being really smart about where he was entering and how to play the game, so he was on a pretty good roll.
"But if you know Cooper, if anything, he’ll come back from this even stronger.”
Cooper Filipek in the hospital after suffering a broken back during a rodeo accident. (Getty Images) 
After suffering a broken back during a rodeo competition, Gillette resident Cooper Filipek has turned to the other passion in his life while recovering — music. (Getty Images) 
Gillette College bareback rider Cooper Filipek, 23, was a rising rodeo star when his career was abruptly interrupted when a horse rolled over him and broke his back during a bareback ride in August. (Getty Images) 
Gillette College bareback rider Cooper Filipek, 23, was a rising rodeo star when his career was abruptly interrupted when a horse rolled over him and broke his back during a bareback ride in August. (Getty Images) 
Gillette College bareback rider Cooper Filipek, 23, was a rising rodeo star when his career was abruptly interrupted when a horse rolled over him and broke his back during a bareback ride in August. (Getty Images)
Planning His Comeback
What keeps him going?
Filipek said it’s his expectation that he will heal and go back to riding bareback broncs.
“And if it takes two years, that’s fine,” he said. “Two years can be really short.”
Sellers believes he’ll do what he says. After all, she’s seen him do that before.
“He’s never been one to dwell on the bad,” she said. “I remember after he was reserve national champ. He told me, ‘I’m going to come back and win the national title.’ I said, ‘OK’ with some skepticism.
"And the following season, despite only being eligible to ride at half the rodeos, he won the region and won the nation.”
But Filipek is also endearing to fans because of his desire to give back, in his endeavors as an artist and musician.
He has a silversmithing shop in his garage where he’s busy making bits and spurs and engraving jewelry for his family members. He has four guitars and a violin, and hopes to write music.
“You can’t be lazy,” he said. “Once you quit trying to be the best every day, it will show on the back of a bucking horse and it will show out of the arena, too.
"If you want to be the best version of yourself, you can’t slow down.”
And while his pain and fatigue are “getting old,” Filipek’s face lights up when he talks about his plans to volunteer at Gillette College.
“I’m going to give talks to the students every other week,” said Filipek, whose phone screensaver is an image of his goals. “They don’t have that here. Normally these kids don’t get any of that from their coaches. And I’m not afraid to tell them to quit being lazy. Kids are ornery.
"I was, too, at 19. They get on broncs once a week, but they need to ride that bucking machine every day and be in the gym every day.”
Back In The Gillette Barn
Filipek already makes the long drive to the college arena several days a week to help his former roughstock coach Marvin Garrett, a four-time world-champion bareback rider.
He’s frequently at the Gillette College barn, helping coach the likes of Irish immigrant Cian Daly, who’s ranked fifth in the region while Gillette College leads the men’s regional standings in a tie with the University of Wyoming.
“Definitely, being around Cooper has been a great influence on Cian,” said Sellers.
Filipek wants student-athletes to know what he’s learned about happiness: Just change a few minor things each day.
“First thing in the morning, they can’t be scrolling TikTok,” he said. “You need to pray or read or sit outside with your coffee and think, ‘How beautiful it is out here!’ Do that for three days straight and see the change in you.”
After going from being on top of the world to unable to get around, Filipek faces an uncertain future. But you wouldn’t know it to talk to him.
Ask him what it would mean to spur a bronc again, and he’ll say, “Life’s too short to look at it like that.” But then he grins and admits it would be the best.
Filipek is still sponsored by local musician Kellan Smith, whom he went to watch open for Ian Munsick at his new bar in Deadwood recently.
And Gillette College has designated a day of competitive roping on Oct. 18 as a financial benefit they’re calling “Loop For Coop.”
Filipek can also receive assistance via Venmo: @cooper-filipek (last four digits 4024), or the old-fashioned way at P.O. Box 1811, Rapid City, SD 57709.
