Happy to be back in the saddle again

Healthy again, Martinat set for Ellensburg debut||

ELLENSBURG — As is the case every year, this weekend’s Ellensburg Rodeo’s performance schedule is overflowing with the biggest stars in professional rodeo.

Bryan Martinat will be there, too.

The 22-year-old saddle bronc rider is a household name in, well, his own household. You’ve probably never heard of him. But if the pride of Marsing, Idaho (pop. 945) can catch a break — as opposed to a broken bone, or another collapsed lung — you will soon enough.

“I’m just excited to be rodeoing,” said Martinat, who will make his Ellensburg Rodeo debut in Sunday’s matinee session. “Whether it’s a $55 purse rodeo or one that pays $10,000, it doesn’t matter to me — I’m just excited to be crawling down into the chute onto bucking horses with a chance to compete.”

He knows what it’s like not to have that chance.

In the autumn of his sophomore year at Western State College, Martinat was badly injured during a rodeo in Hamilton, Texas, suffering a collapsed lung for the second time. He spent three weeks in the hospital and doctors told his coaches he’d probably be out for five months.

Four months later — after having missed half of the college rodeo season — he was back in the saddle.

“We had five spring rodeos, and for me to have a chance (at reaching the collegiate regionals) I had to win three of those rodeos and place in the top three in the rest of them,” recalled Martinat, who did precisely that. He placed second in the regional finals, earning a trip to the 2009 College National Finals (CNFR), where he won the average.

This summer, now riding for Blue Mountain College — coached by Yakima-area favorite Chance Dixon — Martinat reached the CNFR again and tied for the win in the saddle bronc short (championship) round.

But his big year wasn’t quite over. Splitting his time between college rodeos and two professional circuits — the Wilderness and Columbia River — Martinat didn’t win enough money to earn a trip to either circuit finals rodeo. But when the Columbia River Circuit finals found itself with an open spot, Martinat got the call.

And boy, is he ever glad he answered that call. He ended up drawing Spring Planting, Flying Five’s reigning world champion bucking horse, in the CRC Finals’ Saturday night session.

“That was awesome just to get a chance to get on a horse like that,” Martinat said. “You know if you can ride him, you’re going to go to the pay window. My coach, Chance, was there, and he just kept me calm. I didn’t overlook the horse, I went at him just like I would any other horse and it paid off.”

Only time will tell if Martinat be able to replicate the career of say, Cody DeMers, another CNFR saddle bronc champion who two years after his college victory used a win at Ellensburg to springboard to the first of three straight trips to the National Finals Rodeo.

But Martinat is certainly happy for the chance.

“There’s going to be so many good animals in stock there (at Ellensburg) — it should be a pretty even pen of horses,” Martinat said. “I’m just going to treat it just like any other rodeo.”

And, perhaps, add a new star to that already glittering Ellensburg lineup.