Photo by Ric Andersen
Timing has to be right for buckers
For the first few years of their lives, the colts and calves at the Pete Carr Pro Rodeo ranch are busy growing and maturing their bodies. That’ s an important part of the process.
Their sires are elite stallions and bulls, ones that not only have a proven breeding track record but have also performed well enough in the arena to have been selected to buck at the National Finals Rodeo. The studs are bred to mares that have excelled, most of which have also performed in Las Vegas. Bulls are bred to cows that have produced prominent buckers.
As the animals age and develop, they are going through a bit of training. When the colts are about 5 years old, the Carr team will buck them once or twice to see what they can do and to teach them what it’ s like to be moved around in the back pens of a rodeo arena and how to manage the chute system. Bulls are typically 3 when they go through that procedure.
“ We’ re just wanting to get them broke to that,” said Billy Jones, the operations manager for Pete Carr Pro Rodeo.“ We won’ t haul the bulls much until they’ re
4 or 5, but there are some that you can haul a little earlier. Every bull and horse is different, so you treat them different. It’ s just like a kid; some 15-year-old boys are like a man. It’ s the same with 4-year-old horses and 3-year-old bulls.
“ You have to gauge them off how they are mentally and physically.”
It’ s why LeBron James and Kobe Bryant were ready for the NBA when they graduated high school; they had the physical development and mental maturity to handle the elite level of sport.
It can be difficult to understand where an animal is in its development, but Jones and other rodeo professionals pay close attention to the horses and bulls that are part of the team. The Carr crew understands where each individual is athletically and how much it can handle mentally. Many of the young horses are hauled to Clarendon( Texas) College, where rodeo coach Bret Franks will utilize them in his practice pen.
“ This year alone, we’ ve probably sent 30 or 35 horses to Clarendon,” Jones said.“ It’ s a lot of chute procedure for those guys. It lets the horses figure out that we’ re not trying to hurt them. It makes them to where when you take them to a rodeo, the kind of know what’ s going on.
“ They’ ll buck them there for about three times in a month, which is a little more than I’ d like, but it’ s so far up there from the ranch in Moscow( Texas) that it’ s better to just leave them there.”
It’ s about the care of the animals and the exposure to what life is like as a rodeo superstar.
“ When we get them back from the college, they don’ t have to go to a rodeo for three or four months,” Jones said.“ We’ ll keep an eye on them and see how they are doing. We will decide on when to take them to rodeos based on the development of the horse. We’ re hauling some this year and taking some 5-yearold horses to rodeos; it’ s just a very few of them, but they are the bigger, more mature ones.”
Knowing what a developed bucking animal looks like is just part of the process. Pete Carr and his team of professionals have been perfecting it for years.
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