MINOT, N.D. – The Badlands Circuit has awarded its 2022 Rough Stock Horse and Bull Awards to top bucking stock in the region.
The Bareback Horse of the Year goes to Adams Pet, owned by Bailey Pro Rodeo. The Bareback Horse of the Finals was won by Pejuta Haka, Muddy Creek Pro Rodeo.
The Saddle Bronc of the Year goes to Bugsy, Muddy Creek Pro Rodeo, and the Saddle Bronc of the Finals was won by Freckles, Mosbrucker Rodeo.
In the bull riding, the Bull of the Year was a tie, awarded to two animals: Super Tramp, owned by Bailey Pro Rodeo, and Schott in the Dark, Sutton Rodeo. The Bull of the Finals went to Red Wagon, of the Mosbrucker Rodeo string.
Chancy Wilson, co-owner of Muddy Creek Pro Rodeo near Kyle, S.D., has two animals on the list.
Pejuta Haka, which means medicine root in Lakota, is a ten-year-old gelding who carried Ty Breuer to the pay window with a score of 87 points in round number one of the circuit finals.
Several cowboys have won money on him this year: Orin Larsen in Rapid City and Golden Valley, N.D.; Breuer in Ogallala, Neb., and Wyatt Denny in Deadwood, S.D., among others.
The bald-faced dun is out of Wilson’s stud Bragging Rights and is named after the reservation district in which Wilson, his wife Paige, and their family live near Pine Ridge.
Wilson’s horse Bugsy won the Saddle Bronc of the Year award.
This year was the first year for the eight-year-old stud to buck at pro rodeos, and out of five attempted rides, only two cowboys made the buzzer: Lefty Holman (88.5 points at Rapid City’s Extreme Broncs Finals) and Kash Deal (at Sentinel Butte, N.D.)
Bugsy doesn’t have any tricks up his sleeve, Wilson said, he just likes to do his job.
“He’s one of those special horses that bucks. There’s nothing dirty to him, he just bucks.”
But Bugsy’s demeanor changes in the back pens. “He’s a big gentle giant,” Wilson said. “You can pet him and scratch him. He’s as gentle as they come.”
He, along with Pejuta Haka, will make their first trips to the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo this December.
Mosbrucker Rodeo Co., Mandan, N.D., had two animals among the seven winners for the circuit.
Freckles, a five-year-old bay mare, won the Saddle Bronc Horse of the Finals.
A bay with freckles in the white stripe on her face, she’s “just been a horse they have a chance to win first on, every time,” Kelly Mosbrucker said.
Five of the seven times she was ridden in 2022, the cowboy scored 83.5 points or more on her, including a ninety-point ride by Lefty Holman at Rapid City’s Extreme Broncs Finals.
“They’ve won an outrageous amount of money on her all summer long,” Mosbrucker said.
This year was her first trip to the Badlands Circuit Finals; she has also been selected to buck at the National Finals Rodeo for the first time.
The Mosbrucker bull Red Wagon won Bull of the Finals. Out of an attempted fifteen rides in the past two years, only one cowboy has made the buzzer on the five-year-old: Mason Spain, in Park Rapids, Minn., in 2021.
Mosbrucker bought Red Wagon two years ago at the Miles City, Mont. sale, thinking he would be a good bucker.
“The thing that impressed me in Miles City was that after he threw the cowboy off, he spun till he was dizzy,” Mosbrucker said. “I (adjusted) the flank a little bit and got him to where he would really kick, and he has been very outstanding ever since.”
The 2022 Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo took place in Minot Oct. 14-16, with champions crowned in each event.
25 For more information, visit the website at RodeoMinot.com or the Badlands Circuit Finals Facebook and Instagram pages.
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