BRIDGEPORT, Texas – World champions know the key to their gold buckle successes is having a great partnership, and oftentimes that means having a world-class athlete underneath them.
Reigning world champion bareback rider Kaycee Feild has had the opportunity to get on some of the greatest bucking horses in the business, and one of his favorites is Carr Pro Rodeo’s MGM Deuces Night. Of course, the 7-year-old mare is just one of the great horses owned by Pete Carr, the stock contractor who will be providing animals for the Butterfield Stage Days PRCA Rodeo, set for 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday, May 11-12, at Bridgeport Riding Club Arena.
“That’s just a unique horse, and she gets real high in the air,” said Feild, a four-time NFR qualifier from Payson, Utah, whose father, Lewis, is a five-time world champion. “That horse tries really hard to buck really good. She gets high in the air and gives you a lot of time to set your feet and crank your toes out. You’ve got to have quick feet and set them high in the neck. With that horse, it seems easy to set them high in the neck.
“She’s that way every time I’ve been on her. She’s a pretty cool horse.”
MGM Deuces Night has been one of the best bucking horses in the business since she started bucking in Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association events. The cowboys who see her and have a chance to match moves with her know it better than anyone, and that’s why they have selected her to be part of the most elite pen of bucking horses at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo – the showiest horses in the game are part of the TV pen, a term that dates back to the days when only the final round of the NFR was showcased on television.
Those animals buck during the fifth and 10th rounds of ProRodeo’s championship event, and over the past two seasons, MGM Deuces Night has guided cowboys to the round wins three of the four times she’s bucked – the last time she was out at the NFR, she led Feild to the 10th-round win in his record-setting championship. Not bad for a horse that was raised by bareback rider Wes Stevenson.
“I knew she’d have a really good shot to come to the finals,” said Stevenson. “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.”
Those that have been on the phenomenal mare know that better than most. In a year’s span, Feild won a lot of money on the back of MGM Deuces Night. Last spring, he shared the final-round victory at the RNCFR with a 90-point ride; in December, it was the final round of the NFR; in March, he set a RodeoHouston arena record with a 93-point ride in the $50,000 round. Combined, Feild won $72,685 on the mare in less than a year’s time.
On April 1, four-time NFR qualifier Cody DeMers of Kimberly, Idaho, matched moves with the young bucking beauty for 85 points to finish as the runner up to the national champion at the Ram National Circuit Finals Rodeo.
“I’m embarrassed I didn’t win first on that horse like everybody else in the world does,” he said.
That seems to be a common theme for cowboys who test their skills on MGM Deuces Night.
“I could’ve rode that horse better,” DeMers said of his ride in Oklahoma City. “Pete’s awful high on that horse, and he has every reason to be. I’d pack that horse with me in the minivan to every rodeo I go to if I could.”
He’s not the only cowboy; a lot of the other top names in the game would do the same thing. Even though he’s never strapped his rigging to her back, Heath Ford has seen her in action plenty of times. The bareback riding representative, he handles the political side of the game and works with all the bareback riders in selecting the best horses. He’s also a three-time NFR qualifier, so he knows that side of the business, too.
“She’s a horse that really gets in the air and gives you a lot of time to show off,” Ford said. “It’s kind of like a quarterback and a receiver; you need a quarterback who can put the pass where the receiver can run after the catch and really show his stuff.
“She can do everything to set you up to be successful and show off your talents. She gives you the opportunity to do what you do at a higher level.”
It’s those kinds of horses that cowboys hope will burst out of the chutes when they nod their heads at the Butterfield Stage Days PRCA Rodeo. That’s what bareback riders dream about, and MGM Deuces Night is a big reason why.