LOVINGTON, N.M. – Most bareback riders in Pro Rodeo will talk at length about the great
horses that are part of Carr Pro Rodeo. From Real Deal to River Boat Annie to Dirty Jacket to Grass
Dancer, the list of fantastic animal athletes is long and strong.
It’s getting stronger.
“That Deuces Night is one outstanding bucking horse, the kind that will be the bareback horse of
the finals, I think,” said D.V. Fennell of Neosho, Mo., a 2009 qualifier to the Wrangler National Finals
Rodeo. “Chris Harris won Pecos (Texas) on that horse this year, and it’s definitely a bucker.”
Pete Carr owns the livestock company and recently purchased Deuces Night from Wes
Stevenson, a bareback rider from Lubbock, Texas, who has qualified for the Wrangler National Finals
Rodeo five times. Carr expects big things out of Deuces Night when the company comes to town for the
Lea County Fair and Rodeo, set for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 4-Saturday, Aug. 7.
“This is a very special mare that bucks the right way,” Carr said. “You can tell she loves her job.
We look for big things from her in the near future.”
Deuces Night joins a herd of very talented bareback horses, which have been the talk of the
Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association since Carr Pro Rodeo became a member five years ago. Real
Deal was named the 2005 Bareback of the Year, and River Boat Annie was named the Reserve World
Champion bareback horse in 2007. In fact, NFR qualifier Clint Cannon of Waller, Texas, shared the Lea County Fair and
Rodeo bareback riding title by matching moves with River Boat Annie for 89 points last summer.
“She’s been a great horse for a lot of years,” Ryan Gray said of River Boat Annie. “A lot of guys
have won first on her. She’s a veteran, and she keeps doing it every time.”
Gray is from Lubbock, Texas, and has earned more than $100,000 already this year. He
leads the world standings, helped in large part to winning RodeoHouston’s $50,000 prize in March.
He’s ridden some of the greatest bareback horses in the business through his eight-year career.
In fact, the five-time NFR qualifier shares the world record bareback riding score with a 94-point
ride he earned on the back of Carr’s Grass Dancer in Eagle, Colo., last summer. He knows what kind of
horse it’s going to take to win at this level, and that’s another reason he loves River Boat Annie.
“She has a couple different trips, but you know she’s going to buck,” said Gray, who travels the
rodeo trail with three-time world champion Bobby Mote. “She’s changed over the years. When she first
came around, she was a fun-to-ride horse. She’s gotten a little bit harder to ride. She’s not an eliminator
by any means, but she’s definitely a great horse. “She’s progressed over the years and gotten better.”
And River Boat Annie is just one of many that can help cowboys earn big money at Lovington,
one of the Wrangler Million Dollar ProRodeo Silver Tour events, a nice drawing card for contestants
working to make the NFR.
“Pete’s doing a lot to make that pen of great bucking horses even better,” Fennell said. “That’s
important to us who make our living out here.”
