Kats Goes Cowboy: From the chutes, bareback contestants are pure rodeo

By John Katsilometes

Wednesday, Dec. 8, 2010 | 5:15 p.m.

There’s not much else for Bobby Mote to do. He awoke this morning in his room at MGM Grand around 9 a.m., 2 hours later than normal because hey, it’s Vegas. Late night. What follows in Mote’s day leads to only one appointment: 8 seconds with a bull named Kauai Coconut, a combative horse owned by the Calgary Stampede stock contractor of Canada.

Mote has crammed a lot into this, the sixth day of the National Finals Rodeo at Thomas & Mack Center. He’s read his Bible for about 45 minutes. He’s snacked and done some cardio. He’s met fans at autograph sessions at Monte Carlo and MGM Grand. He’s sat for an interview with MSNBC and made his way to the teeming-with-cowboys dressing room in the bowels of the Thomas & Mack.

There, the 34-year-old bareback rider from Culver, Ore., the event’s reigning world titlist, has dressed down, packing his 6-foot, 176-pound frame into a Wrangler snap-button shirt, jeans and chaps worn for their intended purpose. Same with the spurs, as spurring is vital to the scoring in the bareback competition. Mote finishes the process by zipping into a protective vest with his No. 39 pinned to the back and pushes a Resistol cowboy hat over his head.

Around that musty dressing room are more than a dozen cowboys, competitors but also friends who laugh and talk energetically about the day’s activities -- some have made four personal appearances and are happy just to be in the arena, to take a break from all the gripping and grinning.

Placed discreetly in the corner, atop a sink counter, are three bottles of brown booze. They are filled with Pendleton whiskey courtesy of one of the NFR’s chief sponsors. It has been said that roughstock contestants use Absorbine Jr. before a ride and cheap scotch after, but tonight it will be the popular Canadian whiskey as a post-ride relaxant.

Mote has wrapped his right hand in protective white tape and crouched and bounced to get the blood flowing in his legs. After he climbs into the chutes that ring the arena floor, he performs some final stretching exercises against the metal fencing in the arena chutes. These are the type of extended arm and leg stretches you see most athletes and even dancers perform before a quick burst of physical exertion, and it seems the routine is as much to prepare Mote’s mind as body.

“I’m trying to think of nothing,” Mote says, absently. “I’ve got nothing to dwell on right now. I’m just trying to clear my mind and get in there.”

Mote settles on Kauai Coconut, who is not a worthy opponent on this night. Mote takes the horse to 8 seconds, no problem, but his score is, for him, a substandard 78.5. He’s pissed. He yanks the tape off his hand and tosses it aside, shaking his head but saying nothing.

Soon Wes Stevenson walks toward his ride, which is named Wise Guy but could be called Rise Guy for this event. The horse nearly bounds out of the chute, clearly agitated, his left hoof swinging free over the metal posting. A clod flies out -- dirt or something similar -- and hits a bystander in the chest. The cowboys surrounding the horse lean back to avoid getting clipped, but Stevenson’s friend and traveling partner Will Lowe lurches forward.

“You’re gonna have a good day today, Buddy!” Lowe says, smiling and slapping Stevenson across his back.

Lowe is right. Wise Guy goes nuts, repeatedly popping skyward off all fours as the packed house roars. This horse is not bucking; it’s leaping in a full frenzy. As Stevenson dismounts, the crowd has reached its loudest cheer of the evening, and the score reflects the power of the ride -- an 88.5, which gives the cowboy from Lubbock, Texas, the best score of the rodeo’s sixth go-round.

Afterward, back in the locker room, Lowe seems as excited as Stevenson, who is still heaving in heavy breaths several minutes after his ride. “You got a gelding!” Lowe calls out. “He only gets bucked six or eight times a year!” That’s one excitable gelding, a horse that never gets cheated in competition.

Stevenson high-fives a couple of competitors but is swiftly pulled away for an interview with the TV crew recording the event.

He turns back toward the group in the locker room and nods his head hard. He says nothing, but doesn’t have to, and a couple of his friends and rivals nod back. One of them is Mote, who will have four more chances through Saturday to post something higher than a 78.5.

But it’s all good, because it’s all rodeo.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at twitter.com/JohnnyKats.