According to Warren, the only time Chee cried throughout the ordeal was when he was told he couldn’t go compete. Warren tried to convince Chee that Las Vegas wasn’t going to be possible-that it was unreasonable to put that much strain on his right hand. Even then, Chee was forming a plan to get back to roping. Next was a 10-day stint in the ICU as doctors worked to get the blood flow back into his thumb. It was wrapped in a package of frozen broccoli and rushed to Winslow, where Chee and Warren were airlifted to Phoenix’s Children’s Hospital.įollowing an 8-hour surgery, Chee’s thumb was back-just without the nerves and one of the crucial tendons. And it was nowhere to be found, even where the incident had happened.”Īs the sun set, the thumb was found severed at the metacarpophalangeal joint (the large joint where the thumb meets the hand) outside the arena about 40 feet from where the accident occurred. His maternal grandparents, paternal grandparents and his uncle were crawling around inside the arena trying to find it. Warren swooped in and took Chee to the Winslow, Arizona, medical center while several generations of family searched for a right thumb in the arena. Chee’s reaction after the accident was shock, and Warren thinks the adrenaline kept him composed throughout the doctor’s visits and surgery preparation. Chee caught his steer and dallied, but his dally came undone as the steer kept running, catching his hand in the rope. 12 when Chee headed out to rope with Brandon on their family ranch. It was a brisk day with highs in the mid-40s on Nov. In April of 2022, Chee and Brandon entered a #9 team roping in Gilbert, Arizona, and finished in the top 10-just out of the prizes. As he improved, he worked on his dally, eventually heading for Brandon. At the age of 7, he was roping the dummy off a horse, slowly progressing to cattle. In 2017, at the age of 4, he won the Reno Rodeo Dummy Roping and brought home his first buckle.Ĭhee rides and ropes horseback with his dad Brandon Chee, too. He eventually started roping sheep and goats, along with helping his grandparents haul water, feed the animals and turn on the generator to get power to their house.”Īt the age of 3, Chee began competing in dummy roping competitions. When he was 1 year old, we started off with a shoestring, and the rope just got bigger and bigger. “I always tell people the umbilical cord was his first rope,” Warren said. His first rope was a shoestring, and his first roping stock were chickens. It’s mainly dirt-no trees tumbleweeds everywhere.”Ĭhee grew up spending almost every waking moment outside working hard helping his grandparents and doing ranch work. “As simple as hauling your own water and turning on your generator for electricity. She also explained that approximately 70% of the community is without running water, and approximately 40% of the community is without electricity. Warren described it as a food desert, with one store and at least a 60-mile round trip to Winslow or Flagstaff for other items. When you’re reaching at 27 feet, throwing as hard as you can, anything could happen.” Shoestrings and ChickensĬhee grew up in a rural farming and ranching community in Leupp, Arizona, on the Navajo Reservation. “I’m not going to lie I was scared for those pins in that hand. “The only thing that’s holding his thumb together is pins and wire,” Chee’s mom Serena Warren said. When all was said and done, Chee had garnered another reserve world championship and a top-10 finish. His tenacity followed him throughout the slate of dummy roping competitions that happen in conjunction with the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. He lost his thumb in a roping accident less than a month later. Chee beams with his third trophy saddle ever after winning his division at the 2022 Indian National Finals Rodeo. By the time the RopeSmart World Championship dummy roping began in December, he’d already undergone surgery to reattach his thumb and relearned to rope with his pointer and middle finger.įor Chee, earning his World Champion title in that final catch at the RopeSmart competition was validation of his intense dedication to his craft-a dedication that’s stretched his entire lifetime and began in the remote, dusty expanses of the Navajo Reservation in Arizona. His roping arm encased in a white plastic splint, Chee took his shot.Ĭhee lost his thumb just weeks before in a November roping accident. The 9-year-old boy adjusted his loop, the familiar “zip, zip” sound of the rope filling the room at the Plaza Casino in Las Vegas. Brayden Chee hefted his rope, studying the set of horns on the dummy set 27 feet in front of him.
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