'It's a test': Cowboys know ride with Killer Bee often ends in the mud

The best athlete at Sunday’s La Fiesta De Los Vaqueros does not like to be touched.

You might call her standoffish, prude. As beautiful as a model and as tall as one, too. Luscious hair that flows like a babbling brook. Legs like a wound coil, strong, ready to explode.

She weighs, oh, about 1,300 pounds, which may seem like a lot until you realize she eats about 10 pounds of high-quality grain a day, which is enough to put the Killer in Killer Bee.

And Sunday, in the short-go of the Tucson Rodeo, with a big purse awaiting the best ride of the day, Killer Bee is going to go for another record.

The meanest mare in the land already has two here, after all.

One year ago, Devan Reilly had the ride of his life here in Tucson.

A day earlier, after the final of five long-go performances, Reilly found out about the draw — Killer Bee, the baddest bucking bronc of Bennie Buetler’s brood — and knew what he had to do to prepare.

Some cowboys might drown on a bottle of whiskey, if only to numb the pain that was surely going to come the next day. Some might chase a woman, if only to feel the same high. Some might pore over every video of Killer Bee they could find, as if watching her plant 100 other riders into the ground could possibly pep them up.

Reilly slept for 12 hours. So much for fretting.

“Instead of overthinking it, I figured I’d get some rest,” Reilly said.

He’d need it, if he was to conquer the unconquerable. All year, she’s liable to be ridden for all eight seconds maybe two or three times.

You might not know by looking at her, but she’s worth a mint.

“She’s an average-size horse,” Reilly said. “You wouldn’t know she was a bucking horse if you just saw her. You’d figure you could throw on a saddle and go ride up to the mountains with her. But when that gate opens? You know.”

Ornery is the word for it.

Killer Bee comes from such prize stock, it’s not a surprise her stock has risen.

Her sire was the vaunted Commotion, a three-time Pro Rodeo Cowboys Association bareback horse of the year (1998-2000) and one of the greatest bucking horses to ever live. Her mare was Molly Bee, who was a National Finals Rodeo entrant four times. Commotion was so beloved by the Buetler family, which has provided rodeo livestock for 90 years with a horse of the year in each of the last seven decades, they commissioned a bronze statue of him in Elk City, Oklahoma.

“I’ve got a picture on the wall in my office of her daddy, Commotion,” Tucson Rodeo general manager Gary Williams said. “He’s trotting around the arena after he just deposited a bareback rider, and you could swear that Commotion is smiling. You can see his teeth. He’s got his head up, very regal, and Killer Bee is no different. She knows what she’s there to do.”

Molly Bee died two months after giving birth to Killer Bee, and so the Buetler family bottle-fed their prized filly until she was old enough to feed on grain.

At first, Killer Bee was a bareback horse, then a saddle-bronc horse, and she won bronc of the year in 2015 and 2016, until cowboys complained they couldn’t ride her. Buetler switched her back to bareback and she won third in the National Finals Rodeo last year.

“It’s like a racehorse; you breed the best to the best,” Buetler said. “But until you buck ’em or ride ’em, you never know. Secretariat wasn’t a proven sire. You don’t know until you get the championship cowboys on them to know how they’re going to do.”

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Back home on the ranch, she’s docile, Buetler said, with an air about her.

“She’s very independent,” he said. “The horses have a pecking order, and those better horses stay in their own group. We give them all they want to eat, and someone is checking on her every three hours.”

A championship horse like Killer Bee is worth the effort.

Speaking of effort, Reilly knew what it would take to pull off a qualifying ride atop Killer Bee in last year’s Tucson Rodeo final round.

“It’s a test,” Reilly said. “It kind of proves my mettle. If I can sit up and ride this horse, hopefully it says something about me, my style, my career.”

Killer Bee is the kind of animal that reminds Williams of his own bullriding days.

“Back in the day I drew a bull named Tornado who’d never been ridden,” Williams said. “Jim Shoulders owned him. I was tickled to death. I only lasted 3ƒ seconds but I was nine miles high.”

Last year, after fidgeting and fussing to find his perfect position, Reilly gave a little nod and then held on for dear life as Killer Bee darted right out of the chute, gave a little warm-up kick, planted hard and bolted into the air, her hind legs higher than Reilly at that point.

Then, three more big kicks and a mid-air clockwise turn, enough to tear Reilly’s shoulder at the seams.

“There is so much they throw at a guy in a fraction of a second,” Reilly said, recalling the ride. “She stayed pretty honest. Jumping four feet in the air, kicking every jump. You can see in some of the pictures that she’s pointing her toes to the sky.”

After four more big kicks, the eight seconds was over, but not the danger. A horse like Killer Bee isn’t going to let a cowboy just casually dismount, and there was nothing casual about the impact of Reilly’s back smashing into the ground as Killer Bee darted away.

The pain was temporary. Reilly knew what he’d just accomplished.

“I didn’t know what they’d throw out for points; I was just happy,” he said. “I remember standing by Dusty Tuckness, kind of reliving it, and my good friend (rodeo announcer) Will Rasmussen, the way he got into it. I was just happy to get her rode, and to be a 93 was amazing. Especially at the 93rd Tucson Rodeo.”

For Williams, it was a welcome sight.

“Devan Reilly wasn’t a real well-known bareback rider, but he was psyched,” Williams said. “I didn’t know if he’d be able to cover. He went out and probably made the ride of his life, and it showed in the score.”

For Reilly, it was just another day at the office.

“Drawing a horse like her, you know the opportunity is there,” he said. “A big rodeo like Tucson, if you make the short round, there’s already that atmosphere, and you know big moments can happen if you’re primed for it. If that horse has a good day, and you have a good day, it primes you for a big score.”

Williams said it best.

“If you stub your toe, you’re going to hit the ground early,” he said. “But this is your chance. Your chance to make your mark.”