Livestock • Inducted 1979 Rarely did cowboys make a successful ride on the bronc Steamboat. This 1,100-pound Wyoming ranchland horse first attracted public attention at the Festival of Mountains and Plains in Denver in 1900. Bronc riding in the early days of rodeo was far different from what is seen today;...
Livestock • Inducted 1979 Poker Chip Peake, an iron-gray gelding sired by the famed Quarter Horse Driftwood, was a tie-down roper’s dream horse. He had it all, perfect conformation and great “cow sense,” stopping and working a rope with such consistency each run. In 1963, the trailer he was in overturned...
Livestock • Inducted 1979 In Oscar’s first five years as a bucking bull, more than 100 cowboys tried to ride him and every one of them failed to make the eight-second horn. A bronze “Oscar” was offered by owner RSC (Rodeo Stock Contractors) to the first man to ride him. The...
Livestock • Inducted 1979 Cowboys called him Old Spec, not with affection but with respect for the curiously spotted, cross-bred Brahma bull that in 350 attempts, over a seven-year bucking career, allowed only seven riders to make qualifying rides. It was a ratio of 50 to 1, in favor of the...
Livestock • Inducted 1979 The Canadian horse, Midnight, began his rodeo career by bucking off his owner, Jim McNab, after a car backfired. McNab then sold the black horse to stock contractor Peter Welch and Strawberry Red Wall, producers for Canadian rodeos in the 1920s. After acquiring, Midnight, they increased their...
Livestock • Inducted 1979 Described by world champion saddle bronc rider Gene Pruett “as the greatest bucking horse in history,” Hell’s Angel usually left the chute with a high wrenching kick that gained impetus from striking the back of the chute. The 1,300-pound Percheron Pinto cross began his career with Montana...
Livestock • Inducted 1979 Five Minutes to Midnight began life with the name Tumbling Mustard. Although he was smaller, his twists and plunges led to his often being confused with the renowned bronc of the day, Midnight. When people asked, “Is that the horse Midnight?,” the usual answer was, “Darn close...
Livestock • Inducted 1979 Six-time Bucking Horse of the Year Descent, a palomino gelding, was the most noted animal in the Beutler string. Lynn Beutler purchased the horse in 1964 as a 5-year-old. In 1966, the season’s Top 15 saddle bronc riders voted Descent as the Bucking Horse of the Year....
Livestock • Inducted 1979 Come Apart, the sorrel nemesis of bareback bronc riders during the 1950s and 1960s, came out of rangeland south of Red Lodge, along the Wyoming-Montana border. He was first purchased by the late Leo J. Cremer, Montana rodeo stock contractor. Unlike most bucking stock, Come Apart had...
Livestock • Inducted 1979 Bullet, sired by noted Quarter Horse Jack McCue, may have begun his rodeo career as a tie-down roping mount in the 1930s, but he achieved his fame as a steer roping horse. Roy and Pat Lewis sold the 1,000-pound sorrel gelding to veteran roper Bob Crosby. In...
