Highest Heels in Vegas
The gate to chute no. 6 swings open and Killer Bee launches toward the middle of the Thomas & Mack Center arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The crowd roars as the sorrel mare — ears perked forward and back feet kicking straight up — jumps high and hangs in the air with every violent buck.
In the saddle, Ryder Wright is spurring in the same go-for-broke mode that helped him win the first four rounds of the 2016 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo (he wound up placing first in five of the event’s 10 go-rounds). The then 18-year-old saddle bronc sensation certainly drew a high-caliber horse here in the seventh round. Killer Bee was named Top Wrangler NFR Bucking Stock in 2013 and 2014, and had already bucked off Zeke Thurston in Round 2 of this NFR.
Rhett Beutler of Beutler & Son Rodeo Company watches his blazed-face mare perform from behind the chutes. It takes only a few seconds for him to clearly see that Killer Bee is in top form.
“When she leaps, her front feet come really high off the ground, and then she breaks over so hard when she kicks that everybody says the swells of your saddle disappear,” Beutler says later. “She kicks straight above her head. If you make it for those first couple of jumps, she just gets stronger as she goes.
Above: Killer Bee launches out of her chute, bucks to the middle of the arena, and then begins spinning and jumping to the right, throwing Ryder Wright off balance before the 8-second mark. Photography by Ross Hecox.
“What’s funny about that mare — it’s like she knows she’s in Vegas and rises to the occasion. A lot of the highlights in her career are at Vegas. Some horses buck better in other arenas. For some reason she really likes Vegas.”
The bright lights, small arena, and loud crowd of about 17,000 rodeo fans make the NFR a truly unique experience for cowboys and roughstock alike. On top of that, the livestock are housed on the campus of the University of Nevada Las Vegas because the Thomas & Mack Center was designed for UNLV Runnin’ Rebels basketball, not rodeo. Spending about two weeks in pens just a few blocks from the colorful lights of the Las Vegas Strip is quite a contrast to hanging out for a few days at fairgrounds and facilities designed for housing bulls and broncs.
During the 10-round, 10-day event, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association is responsible for feeding and caring for hundreds of rodeo stock, installing an intricate arrangement of pens and alleyways on the nearest plot of open ground: UNLV’s intramural soccer fields. Along with housing them and managing their health, it’s a top priority to keep them primed to buck to their full potential on the sport’s biggest state.
2:08:23 PM
A few hours before Round 7, Clint Potts sends Killer Bee down the alley and toward the Thomas & Mack Center. Photography by Ross Hecox.
Clint Potts rides his bay roan gelding into a pen holding several bucking horses. The Montana cowboy has worked on the feed crew or as a pen rider at the NFR for more than 20 years. Several other crew members have worked at the NFR for many years as well, and there is a waiting list of capable cowboys wanting to join the crew.
It’s Day 7 of the 2016 NFR. Holding a folding piece of paper with bronc numbers and wielding a blue flag, Potts sorts out Killer Bee. She slips out of her pen and trots down a long alleyway with her head held high. Given that it’s afternoon and she’s done this several times before, it’s likely that the sorrel mare figures she is heading to the Thomas & Mack Center to perform.
She steps into the turnout pen, then is flagged down another long alleyway that runs beside a few buildings, cuts through a parking lot and leads into the northwest tunnel of the Thomas & Mack. She and other saddle broncs hang out in a series of individual pens while Potts and other crew members sort bulls and bareback horses in the tunnel. She waits patiently until the crew is able to slide the night’s broncs up to another set of individual pens inside the tunnel, where they’ll stay until it’s time to filter into the bucking chutes.
“The top 15 guys riding at the NFR are pretty much the deciding factors.” says Jacobs Crawley, a leading rider who also serves as the saddle bronc event representative. “The stock contractors nominate their horses, and at the end of September the top 20 guys [in PRCA’s saddle bronc riding world standings] make our initial cuts. In early October, the 15 NFR contestants have a series of conference calls, and we pick the 110 or so horses. We also set up the pens so that each night the horses are similar; that way you don’t have a grab-bag of bucking horses.”
Two semi-truck loads of sand are poured into the turnout pen so broncs can enjoy a good roll on the ground. Photography by Ross Hecox.
Every day, bucking horses spend time in the turnout pen stretching their legs and getting some voluntary exercise. Photography by Ross Hecox.
To keep the competition as even as possible each night, the group puts the saddle broncs into categories, such as the high-score potential “TV pen broncs,” the less dramatic “hoppers,” and the rank horses, often referred to as “eliminators.”
“The rank pen is full of horses that are more unpredictable,” Crawley says. “A cowboy has a chance at a big score, but they can be really tough to ride.”
Killer Bee belongs in the rank pen for a good reason.
“Some broncs are real fun, smooth and easy to work with when you ride them,” says Cody Wright, a two-time saddle bronc world champion, and Ryder’s father. “The eliminators are harder to work with. They tend to jump high and drop hard, taking your saddle swells to the ground, and a lot of them will, at the same time, throw their heads up. That makes them lighter in the head and gives you nothing to lift on with your bronc rein, which is what pulls you into the saddle. That’s what makes them eliminators. And when they get light and then start to whirl around, they can get kind of scary. You never know what they’re doing.”
With 10 go-rounds and 15 contestants riding each night, plus the possibility of a few re-rides, it’s certain that each of the 117 chosen saddle broncs will see action. However, none are bucked more than twice during the NFR, and none buck twice within 48 hours.
9:07:36 PMAfter five colossal jumps in five seconds, Killer Bee arrives at the center of the arena and begins spinning and leaping to the right, and throwing her head. Ryder manages to keep his stirrups, even though his upper body is swaying and buckling in the saddle. At one point his free hand swings down near the mare’s shoulder. Contact would be a disqualification.
The eight-second whistle is barely audible above the cheering crowd, which has risen to its feet. After a few more spins and four more seconds, Ryder finally bails off.
“I was thinking, ‘Don’t fall off!'” says Cody Wright, who was watching his son’s ride from behind the chutes. “It was really exciting because that horse started out like she was going to earn a million points, and then she went to whirling.”
“He had ridden her through those first great jumps, and then she went wild and started going straight up in the air,” Beutler adds. “You can’t ask a horse to buck any harder or do anything more. It was pretty sensational. I may never have an animal do that again, that’s for sure.”
From Beutler’s perspective, it was also encouraging that Killer Bee performed at a high level five days after bucking in Round 2. It’s not simply due to her breeding, athleticism and tenacity; it’s a credit to her care in the bronc pens.
8:47:78 AMBroncs stare intently from their pens as a skid loader carrying feed rolls down the alleyway. Crew members bundled up in hoodie jackets and gloves pour grain into black rubber tubs and then push them under the panels and into the pens. Killer Bee lowers her head as a tub slides toward her front feet.
At regular-season rodeos, Beutler is responsible for the care of his own roughstock. However, during the NFR the duties fall to PRCA. With 55 different contractors providing stock — which includes 117 broncs, 105 bareback horses, 100 bulls, 75 tie-down calves, 60 bulldogging steers and 60 team roping steers — the process of feeding and management could be a logistical headache if all parties were involved.
“If these horses are not taken care of and they don’t feel good — if they’re not getting enough to eat or are not getting to move around and are sore — it’s going to affect the way they perform in the rodeo,” Beutler says. “PRCA has a plan and a process figured out, and they do a good job.”
Beutler says that he regularly visits the pens and feels free to make suggestions on how the crew feeds and manages his roughstock. More than 200 tons of hay and over 60 grain are fed during the NFR. Pens and alleys are regularly watered down to limit dust, and the turnout pen is designed so horses can behave like horses.
Twice a day, NFR roughstock are fed quality hay and grain. The PRCA coordinates all of the livestock care during the event. Photography by Ross Hecox.
Bareback horses wait in individual pens in the tunnel leading into the Thomas & Mack Center Arena. Photography by Ross Hecox.
“About five years ago it was an extremely dry year, and we noticed that the horses wouldn’t roll in the turnout pen because the ground was too hard for them,” says John Barnes, who as livestock superintendent oversees the care of all roughstock. “That’s when we started hauling two semi-truck loads of sand every year so the horses would roll.”
Barnes and Ryan Brown, the assistant livestock superintendent, arrive in Las Vegas two weeks before the livestock begins showing up. Heading up a seven-man crew, they run above-ground water lines, receive and store feed, and set up approximately 900 panels and 225 bow gates for the pens and alleys. Once the event is over, the crew tears down the pens and removes all sand, manure and debris. Barnes also makes sure that the UNLV soccer fields are re-seeded and ready for the spring season.
The crew feeds and waters the roughstock early in the morning and in the afternoon. In between, they get exercised. Pen riders guide each pen of horses down an alley and into the turnout pen, usually running about 15 head at a time. Stallions are kept in their own pens and exercised separately.
“We move them around a little, let them stretch their legs and make sure nothing is lame,” says Potts. “You’ve got to watch out for some of them. There’s one stallion that will try to set you up and try to kick you. But for the most part they’re all pretty easy to handle.”
That includes Killer Bee, who is kept in a pen with several other bucking horses.
“When you sort those horses in the pens, you get to see their personalities, and she’s just an awful nice horse and handles really easy,” says Barnes. “The way she acts in the holding pens and in the arena are totally opposite.”
9:07:43 PMThe noise subsides as spectators wait for Ryder Wright’s score.
“There was a hush over the crowd when there weren’t any scores coming up,” Beutler recalls. “I was hoping the judges were going to give him a score, because I kind of think he would have broke the record for the highest point bronc ride at the NFR. I still like [for Beutler & Son horses] to buck a few guys off, but you also like to see those guys that go at them and try to score 90 points, rather than locking up — not moving their feet — just trying to make the whistle. Ryder was going at [Killer Bee], trying to win first.”
Unfortunately, the judges ruled that, indeed Ryder’s free hand had touched Killer Bee’s shoulder. Although he received no score, the judges had already scored Killer Bee. The bucking horse accounts for half of the total score, and two of the four judges gave her 25 of 25 total points. The other two marked her 24. According to PRCA rules, that would have given her a score of 49 out of a possible 50 points.
Scores that high for roughstock are rare, and many are convinced that if Ryder could have avoided the penalty, he would have scored well over 90 points.
“Ryder almost rode her — rode her for like 7 seconds,” recalls Chase Cervi, one of the pick-up men at the 2016 NFR. “She started out real good, then started throwing into the air and kinda whirling. And that’s what got him. But if he would have ridden her, I think it would have set some records, for sure.”
As the crowd gives Ryder a standing ovation for his effort, Cervi catches Killer Bee’s bronc rein, releases the flank strap, and ushers her out of the Thomas & Mack. From there, the sorrel mare trots down the winding alleyway that leads back to the pens. With the neon lights of the Las Vegas Strip bubbling on the horizon, the livestock crew directs her into the pen, and her work at the NFR is done.
“When she bucks out like she does, she enjoys it,” Barnes says. “You can tell by the look in her eye and the way her ears are that she’s focused on her job, and she’s having fun.”
This article was originally published in the November 2017 issue of Western Horseman.
The post Highest Heels in Vegas appeared first on Western Horseman.