LAS VEGAS – The last time MGM Deuces Night bucked inside the Thomas & Mack Center, she guided Kelly Timberman to the 10th-round win at the 2010 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
“That’s a mare is just an awesome horse that’s good in the chute that gives you a chance to win every time you nod your head,” said Timberman, the 2004 world champion bareback rider from Mills, Wyo., who posted an 88.5-point ride on the Carr Pro Rodeo bucking horse to win more than $18,000 on the final night of the season.
MGM Deuces Night is a 6-year-old mare that was bred to be a bucking machine. She’s doing her job. In October, the bay horse guided Chase Erickson to the bareback riding victory at the All American ProRodoe Finals with an 88; it was just another feather in an already big cap for the horse that’s owned by the Dallas-based livestock producer owned by Pete Carr.
“I don’t care if the horse is dirty rank or hard to ride, I just want one to give me a chance to win first,” Timberman said. “That horse gives a guy a chance to win first every time, but you can say that about a lot of Pete’s horses.”
In fact, three of the four bareback horses in the final round in Waco were Carr animals, MGM Deuces Night, River Boat Annie and Dirty Jacket. Those great animals will be part of the world-class bareback riding pen of horses at the NFR, and they’ll be joined by Big Lights, Alberta Child, Grass Dancer, Black Coffee and Real Deal.
“When you get to the NFR, you want to draw one of Pete Carr’s bucking horses,” said Will Lowe, a three-time world champion bareback rider from Canyon, Texas.
The top roughstock cowboys in the game select the animals that will be bucked at the NFR. There’s a reason eight of the best horses in rodeo will be in Las Vegas
“The thing about Pete Carr’s rodeos is that when you go to one, you know you’re going to get a chance to win first,” said Matt Bright of Azle, Texas, who returns to Las Vegas for the second straight year. “A lot of guys don’t have that.
“I really respect that guy a lot, because he used to be a bareback rider himself. I think that’s why he’s got such a good pen of bareback horses. He knows what kinds of horses guys can win on.”
For instance, Caleb Bennett won the semifinal round in Waco after riding Real Deal for 86 points. It’s that kind of talent that Carr hauls across the country. .
“To be successful, you’ve got to want to win,” said Justin McDaniel, the 2008 world champion bareback rider from Porum, Okla. “Pete goes all out. He tries really hard. You can go to any of Pete’s rodeos and win on any of his horses on any given day.
“Real Deal was the rankest horse I’ve seen in a long time.”
Carr purchased MGM Deuces Night from bareback rider Wes Stevenson, a seven-time qualifier to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo who purchased the horse from the great Zinser bucking string.
“I knew she’d have a really good shot to come to the finals,” Stevenson said. “I knew she was that good, so part of the reason I sold her to Pete is that I knew she’d have a good shot to go to the finals. I bought her from Jim Zinser as a brood mare, but she bucked so good, I didn’t want to waste her sitting at my house. I wanted her to have a chance.
“She has a lot of heart. I was the first one to get on her with a rigging, and from the first time we ever bucked her, I knew that little filly has a lot of heart. She’s a very electric horse. She’s going to start doing some stuff right out of the box.”
Chris Harris saw that at one of the first big rodeos in which bucked. Harris, a six-time NFR qualifier, rode MGM Deuces Night for 88 points to win the 2010 West of the Pecos (Texas) Rodeo. Fast forward just one year when karma came into play. Harris, from Itasca, Texas, was matched with Deuces Night for the second straight year. The tandem worked just as well together, for 87 points, making another Pecos victory for Harris.
This past April, Kaycee Feild and MGM Deuces Night matched moves for 90 points during the Ram National Circuit Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City. It earned the Elk Ridge, Utah, cowboy a share of the final-round win with four-time world champion Bobby Mote, who rode the 2010 bareback horse of the year Big Tex.
“I wasn’t quite sure if it was going to be enough points to help me win that round, because it’s a younger horse,” Feild said. “Then he left there that first jump, then the second, and I knew I had a chance to show my ability to my full ability. He slipped a little, but he got right back up and started right back where he left off.
“He was just outstanding.”
Feild has been around the game a long time. His father, Lewis Feild, owns five world titles, two for bareback riding and three in the all-around. In addition, Kaycee Feild is on his way to his fourth straight qualification to the Wrangler NFR.
“Horses like that have a bucking style … it’s not easy in any means, but if you do stub your toe, you’re going to get bucked off,” Kaycee Feild said. “But those horses are the ones where you can really show your ability to ride. They hang in the air, and they’re really electric.”
Lowe knows that as well as anyone.
“When you go to a Pete Carr rodeo, you know you’re going to get on something that bucks,” Lowe said. “Pete has quite a few really good horses.”
Is Deuces Night one of the best in a string that includes Real Deal, the 2005 Bareback Horse of the Year, and River Boat Annie, the 2007 Reserve World Champion Bareback Horse?
“That’s a pretty awesome horse,” Lowe said of MGM Deuces Night. “It’s got those Zinser blood lines, and they’ve really showed how good they are the last couple years. There’s been quite a few that jumped out that and have been really fantastic.
“When you have that mare, you always got a dang good shot of being 86, 87-plus, and you’ve got a dang good chance of winning. I’ll tell you this: I like her a lot more if her name was next to my name a little more.”
Lowe is describing the random draw that pits cowboy vs. animal in rodeo, which pitted Lowe against the young horse in Eagle, Colo., this past July. Lowe finished second in the rodeo with a quality 87-point ride.
“Deuces Night is a great horse, and she’s one I think will be one for a long time,” Timberman said. “She’s a horse that’s consistent, and she’s a horse that’s part of an elite pen. That’s a pretty strong statement.”
Carr realizes that, and he sees something he really likes in the young horse.
“This is a very special mare that bucks the right way,” Carr said. “You can tell she loves her job.”