Time slows down when a cowboy is getting bucked off his bull — the adrenaline kicks into overdrive, and every detail of what’s going wrong becomes clear.

The blinding arena lights, the deafening roar of the crowd, the heat from the bull, every fiber in the rope as it slides out of grip — it all piles up and overloads the senses until reality comes crashing in.

For Powell pro bull rider Kanin Asay, that was all drowned out when the bull’s back hoof crushed down onto his head during a PRCA rodeo Friday night, cutting his ear three-quarters of the way off.

While Asay was airborne, caught somewhere between the back of his bull and slamming into the ground, the bull spun around and caught him on the side of the head. Fortunately, he was wearing a helmet — which he credited for saving his life.

The resulting injury required 200 stitches to reattach his ear.

“Unfortunately, I have been hurt worse,” Kanin Asay said. 

His spleen had to be removed in 2008 when a bull stepped on his chest, breaking his ribs and fracturing his skull.

This injury isn’t nearly as severe, he said.

“It could have been, but wearing a helmet is what saved my life,” Kanin Asay said.

His wife, Sydney, was by his side immediately after it happened.

“It was definitely really scary, but it was really surreal at the same time,” Sydney Asay said. “His face was just covered in blood, and his ear was barely there.”

She rode in the ambulance with him while some friends watched their kids, she said.

“You don’t want to see a loved one go through something like that,” Sydney Asay said.

Kanin Asay stayed at the Renown Hospital in Reno from Friday night until Sunday afternoon, where he was given medication and orders to not compete for at least a month.

“It didn’t knock me out completely, but it knocked me out a little bit,” Kanin Asay said. “I guess it hurts, but I have been taking pain pills.”

Prior to his injury at the PRCA Reno Rodeo on June 26, Asay was 20th in the June 29 world standings, ranked No. 32 in the PBR’s Xtreme Bulls, 45th in the Wrangler Million Dollar Tour and won the Buc Days Pro Rodeo in Corpus Christi, Texas, earlier this year. 

But, this five-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier is aiming for round No. 6, despite his injury.

Asay plans on being back in the chutes just in time for Cheyenne Frontier Days, pending approval from his doctors.

The injury “puts everything on hold,” Kanin Asay said. “They said that the earliest I could come back would be a month.”

He said he anticipates a significant drop in his standings due to taking the majority of July off from competing.

“You just do your best and ride every single one,” Kanin Asay said. “If I am consistent, once I am back, I can make it to the finals.”

There is plenty of season once he gets back, Sydney Asay said.

“It is what it is, and you have to take it as it comes, so once I am healthy I will get back at it,” Kanin Asay said.