EAGLE,Colo.– Clint Cannon hated to admit it, but 2012 wasn’t panning out to be what he had hoped.
“I just felt like I couldn’t find that niche where I could get over the barrier,” said Cannon, a three-time bareback riding qualifier to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
That changed the last week of June inPecos,Texas, and an 8-year-old bay gelding was the turning point.
“When I saw that I had Dirty Jacket, I thought, ‘This could be the one that could help me break out of that slump,’ ” Cannon said of the Carr Pro Rodeo bucking horse, which helped Cannon to a 90-point ride at the West of the Pecos Rodeo. “I made an awesome ride, and the horse bucked. To start my Fourth of July run with a 90-point ride was great.”
He’d love a repeat performance at the Eagle County Fair and Rodeo, set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, July 25-Saturday, July 28. The score inPecos was good enough for a second-place finish worth $2,677. That moved Cannon ever closer to the top 15 in the world standings; should the Waller, Texas, cowboy finish the regular season in the top 15, he’ll return for a fourth time to Las Vegas this December.
And he’ll have Dirty Jacket to thank for turning his season around.
“He bucks every time I’ve been on him,” Cannon said. “He’s one of those horses you can win on every time if you ride him right. What’s great about that horse is just how electric he is. When the gate swings open, I think he kicked the back of the bucking chute three times before he got to the end of the gate.
“He’s just so showy and electric. He bails out of there and just keeps cracking them.”
Cannon is one of several bareback riders who feel the same way about the great bucking horse, which has been to the NFR each of the past three seasons. The gelding should return to ProRodeo’s grand finale in just four months.
“When he leaves the chute, he’s trying to kick the flankman off the back of the chute,” said Kaycee Feild, the reigning bareback riding world champion who won the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo after riding Dirty Jacket for 89 points in the championship round. “He’s so fast, and he bucks so hard.
“There’s no way you can muscle up on him. You’ve got to be fast and aggressive, or he will get you out of shape and might get you bucked off.”
Cannon knows that as well as anyone, but he realizes that if a cowboy handles his job, Dirty Jacket can help you reach the pay window. That’s what bareback riders want.
“He’s one of those horses that when you’re over in the dumps, you ride that one over and over again in your mind to get you back to where you need to be,” Cannon said. “I won second on him at the NFR this past year in the 10th round.”
Pete Carr, owner of Carr Pro Rodeo, has a dozen animals selected to the finals each year, a couple of which are bucked in the fifth and 10th rounds. Carr owns some of the greatest bucking animals in ProRodeo, including Real Deal, the 2005 Bareback Riding Horse of the Year, and Riverboat Annie, the 2007 reserve world champion bareback horse.
“This is the best I’ve seen Dirty Jacket,” Carr said. “He’s been phenomenal.”
He’s been pretty good since he first started bucking in May 2008.
In addition to Feild’s win inFort Worth, three other cowboys earned titles on the horse so far this year: Wes Stevenson ofLubbock,Texas, won inSan Angelo,Texas, after matching moves with Dirty Jacket for 87 points in the short round; Jeremy Mouton ofScott,La., posted an 84 on him to win in Bridgeport, Texas; and Austin Foss of Terrebonne, Ore., scored 89 to win in Window Rock, Ariz.
“That horse has just gotten better,” said Stevenson, a seven-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier. “I think he may have stepped it up from what we’ve seen.”
Dirty Jacket is always electric, which is why the top bareback riders in the game have selected him to buck in the elite rounds at the NFR each of the last three years – the TV pen features the “showiest” bucking horses, and the moniker comes from the days when only the final round of the NFR was televised. The “TV pen” animals buck in the fifth and 10th rounds, which provides a great touch to the halfway point of the championship and the season’s final go-round.
“That horse is in his prime,” Stevenson said. “He could be having one of the better years he’s had, and that’s saying a lot. The first time he was bucked was four years ago in Guymon (Okla.), and they won the rodeo on him.”