PRORODEO Sports - April 24, 2026 Digital Edition

to get out of it, and your passion just takes you deeper and deeper into it. Before I knew it, I was part owner in a rodeo company. Then I had my own rodeo company, and then we were off and running.” And Carr knew when he became a stock contractor, he wanted to be the best in the business. “Being a perfectionist is probably a curse, because you’re always striving, you’re never complacent. You want to be perfect,” Carr said. “I’m trying to learn to set my expecta tions a little lower and enjoy things as I go along. But I just wanted to be good. “When you start out in any business or any arena, every body’s eyes are on you, so you’re under a microscope. Every rodeo we put on, from Day 1, I knew everybody was watch ing us, critiquing us. It motivates you to be better. That’s what drove me.” Carr acknowledged his outside business and rodeo mentors who were instrumental to setting him in the right direction as a stock contractor. “Obviously you need fuel to drive the engine, and my fuel was my commercial construction company. I couldn’t have done it without it,” Carr said. “But I also wouldn’t have done any of this. You’re talking about a kid who grew up in a metropolitan city that never even had a pair of boots growing up, never. I’m the most unlikely guy in the world to end up in the rodeo business. I couldn’t even spell rodeo when I was growing up. So, to be in rodeo, I had a lot of great people that I met, a lot of influences. If it wasn’t for Scotty Lovelace and Stace Smith, I would never have gotten into the rodeo business. “We got into it as a partnership, and I learned a lot. I grew and I saw how they took care of their stock and how they ran their businesses, and I just tried to be as good as them or better, best as I could be. I’ve been fortunate enough along the way to be blessed with great crews and great people. It would take a whole other segment to tell you all the people who helped me along the way. But it takes a lot of people. I’ve had the privilege of riding around Harry Vold’s ranch in a pickup and going to other people’s places and meeting some of the legends and the great people of our sport. I talk to Billy Minnick all the time. Mike Cervi, I talked to him every couple of months

when he was alive. My heroes in the game motivated me to keep going and to be better and to keep taking that sport to the next level that they started.” Like any great stock contractor, Carr was able to get some solid horses to build a foundation for success. “The first couple of horses I got when we purchased the Harper & Morgan Rodeo Company, I got a couple of horses and a couple of bulls that were going to the NFR that year. My partners let me have those. From there, I went to bucking horse sales like Dale Kling’s up in North Dakota. I sat there and put my hand in there and bought. It’s kind of like winning money in Vegas. You don’t talk about the 100 times you lose money. You talk about that one time you won. It’s the same in the buying and selling of livestock. You buy a lot of them, and some end up be ing great. If we had a crystal ball, we’d all be really good at this, but we don’t.” One horse that Carr hit the jackpot with initially was Riverboat Annie. Bred from Tan Line and Cadillac Jack, she made her mark as one of the most sought-after bucking horses in the sport, known for her sheer power and drive. In 2007, she was honored as the PRCA’s Reserve World Champion Bareback Horse and made an impressive 11 appearances at the National Finals Rodeo. Her final per formance in Las Vegas was in 2014, but her legacy contin ues as she now focuses on raising the next generation of champions. Riverboat Annie’s influence was pivotal in the rise of Pete Carr Pro Rodeo, and her legacy as a legendary bucking horse continues to thrive. “Riverboat Annie was the real deal. We had a lot of those good ones back then,” Carr said. “But I remember the day I was sitting at the sale in North Dakota when they bucked Riverboat and she was a colt and all they had was a dum my on her. I think she was 2 or 3 years old and never had a live rider on her. I stuck my hand in the air, and I had a guy bidding against me. I ended up with her, and she ended up being one of the greatest mares that we’ve ever had or seen. She set arena records everywhere and she was just the coolest horse. She’s still alive, she’s still producing, and we have so many animals out of her who have been to the NFR. It’s just amazing what she’s done.” Carr also was quick to praise the talent of Dirty Jacket,

20 PRORODEO SPORTS NEWS DIGITAL MAGAZINE APRIL 24, 2026