GUYMON, Okla. – A great bull ride is equal parts of athleticism, from both the animal and the rider.
Every cowboy in the world knows championships are built on hard work and great dance partners. They’ll find it in Carr Pro Rodeo’s ever-evolving bull pen, which will be on display at the Guymon Pioneer Days Rodeo, set for 7:30 p.m. Friday, May 4; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 5; and 2 p.m. Sunday, May 6, at Henry C. Hitch Pioneer Arena.
“I’ve always tried to get the best animals I can get, whether they’re bulls or horses,” said Pete Carr, owner of the Dallas-based firm that has served as the primary stock contractor in Guymon each of the past five years. “Everybody thinks I’m a horse guy, and I am; I just want to be a bull guy, too.”
The bull riders who make their livings on the backs of these bucking beasts are taking notice. In mid-March, Trey Benton III won the rodeo in Mercedes, Texas, after scoring 91 points on Missing Parts, a dark brindle Carr recently acquired.
“He was pretty wolfy around to the right just at the gate,” Benton said of the energetic bull’s bucking motion. “He was really good. He just stumbled at the five-second mark, but I think he was even more after he stumbled. He got after it.
“You have to have a good bull to score 91, and I got one there.”
Benton wants that to happen a lot more, and that gives the Rock Island, Texas, cowboy plenty of incentive to know where Carr Pro Rodeo bulls will be bucking.
“Whenever a guy’s trying to make a perfect pen of bucking bulls, that’s great,” said Benton, 20, who is in the middle of the world championship race and run for the rookie of the year award in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, ranked in the top five in the world standings by mid-April. “When you’re trying to improve your pen all the time like Mr. Carr, then that means a lot to us.”
Carr has definitely done that. Over the last few months, he has invested into growing his bull herd.
“I’ve got some good ones in addition to Missing Parts,” Carr said. “I’ve got some great bulls in The Mexican, Black Ice, Black Powder, Motown and Panther that went to a lot of the winter rodeos. I have some more outstanding bulls that I haven’t bucked just yet, but I think all of them have a lot of potential.”
The cowboys have taken notice. At big events like Pioneer Days Rodeo, the bull power is a drawing card for the best cowboys in the game. Of the 886 entrants into the 2012 Guymon rodeo, 124 of them were bull riders. That’s a defining statement to what fans can expect inside Hitch Arena.
“Pete Carr has stepped up a lot with his bulls,” said Paul Peterson, the flankman for Carr Pro Rodeo who has been with the company since its inception. “There are a lot of new bulls at the ranch, and I’d say most of them are the kind you can take anywhere and they’ll be pretty strong.
“There are also some young bulls we still don’t know much about, but they look like they’re going to be great.”