Bucking the stereotype

By Tamar Satov

Like anyone planning to write the UFE this fall, Kagan Sirett has a busy summer ahead of him. But unlike other exam candidates, the 25-year-old CA student at Meyers Norris Penny in Red Deer, Alta., will be breaking up his study sessions by riding bulls.

Sirett, one of the country’s top professional bull riders, is set to compete at the Calgary Stampede in July. While no stranger to the Stampede — he was ranked No. 1 in Canada before entering last year’s event — Sirett injured his arm during competition and was forced to take a six-month hiatus. “I tore my bicep off and they had to sew it back to the bone,” he says, undeterred. “I finished the year 13th in Canada, even without riding since July.”

It’s not the first comeback for Sirett, who was once ranked 11th in the world and has earned as much as $160,000 in annual prize money since turning pro in 1998. In late 2001, he hurt his wrist so badly it needed a bone graft from his hip, and he took two years off from the sport to recover. But it was during that period, after completing a degree in business administration from Montana State University in 2002, that he decided to become a CA.

“Since my wrist got messed up, I took an extra year to get all the accounting courses done,” he says. In May 2003, Sirett enrolled in the CA School of Business and began articling at MNP, where the partners are supportive of his extra-curricular endeavours. “Last spring I took Fridays off and left early here and there — as long as I could schedule everything and get my work done,” he says.

Sirett now enters about 45 rodeos and 20 bull-riding competitions annually, down from about 120 events a year before the injuries. In a sport where “you’re done at 30,” he knows his riding days are numbered, but is okay with that. “It’s just a hobby now really. Priorities change,” he says, adding that he’d like to raise bucking bulls someday. “Maybe that will take over my hobby.”