Mouton just aims to stay healthy again

Thursday, Dec. 3, 1998 | 4:33 a.m.

When he arrived in Las Vegas to compete in the 1997 National Finals Rodeo, bareback rider Eric Mouton wasn't all that concerned with winning a world championship.

He just wanted to stay healthy.

After the 25-year-old bareback rider from Weatherford, Okla., competed in his first NFR in 1995, he left with kidney stones. At the '96 NFR, a horse stepped on Mouton's chest in round three and separated his rib cage.

"Every time I've been here, I've had to go to the emergency room for one reason or another," Mouton said of Las Vegas.

At the '97 Finals, however, Mouton did more than stay out of the emergency room. He rode all 10 bareback horses he drew and set an NFR average record of 796 points to earn his first Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world championship. He won $77,091 in Las Vegas to boost his season total to $133,196.

Making the world title even more monumental for Mouton and his wife, Cari, was the way Mouton's 1997 season began. After a tough winter that cost Mouton more money than he earned, the 5-foot-6-inch cowboy was ready to hang up his spurs and call it quits for the year.

But, Mouton said, his family encouraged him to keep going. When summer rolled around, the Oklahoma cowboy got on a hot streak, winning as much as $10,000 on a single weekend. When the regular season ended in November, he had rocketed to eighth place in the Crown Royal World Standings and had qualified for his third NFR.

Mouton said he concentrated on riding with consistency at the NFR.

"You don't have to sock them dead every round," he said. "Just go out there and do your best. The guys that win it all don't always win it every round. They'll win second or fourth, and that's all I tried to do (at the NFR)."

As it turned out, Mouton won two rounds at the NFR and placed in six more. Though he knew his consistent performance was pushing him closer to his first world title, Mouton said he avoided doing the math until the last rider of the 10-day NFR was done competing.

"In the back of my mind I was wondering what was going on," he said. "But I told my family, 'I don't want to know because I don't want to play a head game.'"

On Dec. 14, the wondering was over for Mouton. That evening at Caesars Palace, he humbly accepted the first gold buckle of his four-year PRCA career.