Part of the game

At 23, Chad Besplug was being prepped for shoulder surgery when thought to himself, "I haven't accomplished anything I wanted to."

At that point, he was undergoing his fifth surgery since turning 17, and still, there was no quit in the Canadian-born bull rider. Three years healthy, however, he admitted, "There was definitely a fear that I wasn't going to get the things done I wanted to."

Earlier this year, he rode his way onto the Built Ford Tough Series as an alternate, and last week, he won the centennial celebration of the Calgary Stampede.

With $152,222.63 earned, he's seventh in the qualifier standings, and will be in Las Vegas for his first World Finals appearance in October. By qualifying for the event, Besplug, who grew up 90 minutes from Calgary, will also start the 2013 season on the BFTS.

"I've always known I could be at this level," said Besplug, who will compete this weekend at a Touring Pro Division event in Thief River Falls, Minn., "but I think it just took me a while to mature and get over that stuff."

The stuff he's referencing happens to be a series of five surgeries to his left and right shoulders that hampered the early part of his career.

At 26, the Clare Holm-native literally feels like a different bull rider.

For starters, being healthy has helped him to mentally and emotionally get back to where he once was, when at 15, he began dreaming of being a World Champion.

"I always had the mentality that I'm never quitting no matter what, so it feels good to have that pay off."

Looking back at his ordeal, Besplug said undergoing surgery is devastating for a 17-year-old, and by the time he was in need of a third, fourth and eventually a fifth surgery, he came to the stark realization that winning a gold buckle certainly wasn't going to be easy.

It would have been easy to become bitter at his situation, but he said every bull rider has to understand that some athletes go a long time without being injured, and others battle more injuries than most of their counterparts.

It's just part of the game.

Rather than complain, he dealt with the injuries and moved on. Since then, he's spent more time in the gym training to get himself in the best shape of his career, and while he admits he might not be the most naturally-talented bull rider, he said he's working equally as hard as anyone else competing.

"It was a long road here," Besplug said. "That's definitely one of the things I thought about in the last week or so. I remember laying on those surgery beds and thinking, 'What's going to happen with this?' I always had the mentality that I'm never quitting no matter what, so it feels good to have that pay off.

"It took longer than I expected, but I think your path never goes the way you imagined it."

Besplug qualified for the BFTS as an alternate for the events in Des Moines, Iowa, and Uncasville, Conn., before earning a chance to compete at the next five events as one of the Top 5 money earners on the TPD, who wasn't already ranked in the Top 25.

Chad Besplug rides Loose Cannon during the BFTS event in Idaho.

He'll be in both Tulsa, Okla., and San Antonio, before the next cut.

If he isn't ranked in the Top 25, he'll earn another five BFTS events as a top TPD rider thanks to the more than $100,000 he won in Calgary.

"It was taking a bit to adjust," he said, referring to the first five BFTS events he rode in. "The riders are unbelievable. Those guys are pretty impressive."

Having won in Calgary, where top-ranked riders like Robson Palermo, J.B. Mauney, Kody Lostroh and Austin Meier were competing, he feels as confident in his abilities as at any other time since turning professional.

In addition to continuing to learn and improve as a rider and a competitor, his goal for the rest of 2012 is to win as much money as he can.

Having won the Stampede, he said it's like having a chip on his shoulder, and he won't settle for merely being average or placing here and there. He wants to win, and more importantly, he wants everyone else to know he's capable of winning.

"Having three years of being healthy will do a lot for you," he said.

"I like riding at big places for big money, and it's nice to know I'm set for doing that for awhile."

Follow Keith Ryan Cartwright on Twitter @PBR_KRC.