Killer Bee tried her best to get her cowboy Devan Reilly off her back.

She jumped higher than any other of the bucking horses and bucked like crazy. But instead of knocking Reilly off , she handed him a championship in the bareback riding event at the 93rd annual La Fiesta de los Vaqueros.

Instead of waiting for one of the pickup men to help him off the mare, Reilly jumped off Killer Bee shortly after the buzzer, got to his knees and cheered.

“When I got off, I kind of threw my hands up, excited that I rode her, (and) let everyone else know that I was all right,” Reilly said. “And I didn’t know what the score was — I didn’t care what the score was. I was just excited to go out there and have some fun.”

Reilly was awarded a score of 93.00, which rodeo announcer Will Rasmussen said was the highest score in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association (PRCA) in the last two years. Sunday’s score was also a Tucson Rodeo Arena record. The previous highest-scored ride was 92 points by Ryan Gray in 2006.

The cowboy from Sheridan, Wyoming, said the ride was crazy and full of adrenaline. Once he realized Killer Bee was going all out, he wanted to make sure to perform, he said.

“I knew she’s a ranked horse. I knew she’d be one to win it all. So, when I got her it’s just one of the ones I knew it was going to be a battle and it’s going to be a mental and physical test,” Reilly said. “And I like that kind of stuff, so I was excited to get her today.”

In the bareback, saddle bronc and bull riding events, the animals and cowboys can be scored up to 50 points each. If the horse or bull doesn’t perform well, a lesser score is awarded.

“I was just happy that I performed so well,” Reilly said. “I was blessed that the horse performed just as well.”

Killer Bee, a brown mare with a big white face and white stockings on her back legs, is slightly shorter than the average bucking horse, but is stockily built. She was sired by Commotion, who dominated the late 1990s and won the PRCA’s Saddle Bronc of the Year in 1997, 1998 and 1999.

The soon-to-be 12-year-old mare is owned by Bennie Beutler of Beutler & Son Rodeo Co. The original Beutler Brothers started working at the Tucson Rodeo in 1952, and Bennie Beutler has been the Tucson Rodeo stock contractor since 1980.

The Beutler family is the only livestock contractor to have won Livestock of the Year awards in each of the past seven decades, and Bennie Beutler was named PRCA Stock Contractor of the Year in 1997.

Beutler said Killer Bee’s mother fell ill shortly after giving birth to her and passed away when the mare was 4 months old, which resulted in the horse being raised more by humans than is usual for a bucking horse.

“We didn’t have any idea she’d be this good,” Beutler said. “But like my daddy always said, ‘It’s always better to be lucky than smart.’ So, we were very fortunate with Killer Bee.”

But it does help that Killer Bee had some strong genes. Of the foals Commotion has sired, 70-plus have made it to the National Finals Rodeo.

However, it’s rare for a mare to be such a big competitor in the bucking events. “It’s uncommon to have a horse of this caliber,” Beutler said.

The last time Killer Bee was ridden in the last 12 months was by Cody DeMoss in the NFR saddle bronc event, coming in second. She was also named the third-best bronc at the NFR.

Beutler said he’ll probably have Killer Bee continue to buck a few more years before retiring her into a breeding mare.

Although she’s still a wild horse, Beutler said Killer Bee has no bad characteristics.

She’s not the king of the pen — other horses will still pick on her from time to time — but she sort of tells everyone what to do, he said.

“Whatever she wants to do, she does,” Beutler said.

Notable

  • Blake Knowles came into Sunday’s steer wrestling final with the second-fastest time (10.6 seconds on two runs) and clocked in the day’s fastest time at 4.3 seconds to claim the championship.

“Guys were making really good runs, so it was actually putting the heat on me a little, but I knew I still had a pretty good cushion in the average,” Knowles said.

Sean Santucci, who led the average with 9.5 seconds on two runs, came out after Knowles and needed a time of 5.4 seconds or beater to win, but his steer managed to run almost halfway down the arena before he was able to get hold of it and take it down.

“It’s just, his steer ran pretty hard and mine didn’t run as hard, so I was able to catch up a lot faster,” Knowles said of the runs. “Hats off to Sean, he had a good week. The only thing that cost him a championship was the luck of the draw.”

  • The duo of Zane Barnson and Cole Wilson won the team roping go-round and average with a time of 5.9 seconds. Barnson was the header and Wilson worked as heeler.
  • Baby Face Nelson acted up a little in the chutes and managed to get her front legs over the gates just as Jade Blackwell was preparing to start his ride, but the bucking bronc calmed down in time. Blackwell, of Rapid City, South Dakota, and Baby Face Nelson received a score of 86.00.

Three more cowboys were still up to compete after Blackwell’s ride, but Blackwell said he wasn’t too worried about the results. “Everybody here rides well, so you just do what you do and let the numbers take care of themselves,” Blackwell said.

  • Although it wasn’t the fastest time of the day, because of his 20.9-on-2 average, Jake Pratt’s 11.8 second run in the tie-down roping final was good enough to secure first place. His total time of 32.7 was 1.2 seconds faster than the second-place finisher.
  • Teri Bangart had the fastest time of the week in women’s barrel racing with a time of 17.35 seconds, but Christine Laughlin, who came into the finals with the fastest qualifying run, completed a 17.42-second ride to claim the championship.
  • For the second consecutive year, Dave Mason rode Record Rack’s 90 Proof and won the championship in bull riding.

“It’s always good to win, especially the same place twice,” Mason said. “I’m just doing my job and having fun doing it.”

Mason was the only rider to have a qualifying run on Sunday. The 11 other riders were bucked off or disqualified before the eight-second limit. Mason said the quality of bulls this year, like previous years, was outstanding. Mason was also bucked off his bull, but the Australian cowboy out of Texas held on at the buzzer and the judges gave the thumbs-up to count the ride.

“I was just lucky the boys didn’t have their ducks in a row today,” Mason said.

Tucson Rodeo final results / B6

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