The Stark Truth

Oregon cowboy Bobby Mote, who just broke the PRCA record for career earnings by a bareback rider, gives Silverdale native Clint Corey, his mentor, a lot of credit for his success. Here’s the PRCA story after Mote, a regular at the Kitsap Stampede, won at Red Bluff, Calif., on Sunday:
RED BLUFF, Calif. – Bobby Mote’s 84-point ride on Growney Brothers’ Beaver Fever April 17 allowed him to tie fellow Oregonian Steven Peebles for the Red Bluff Round-Up title and break the PRCA record for career earnings by a bareback rider.
The $4,852 Mote banked in this Wrangler Million Dollar Tour event, presented by Justin Boots, boosted the four-time world champion’s career total to $1,877,065 and moved him past his friend and mentor Clint Corey into 19th on the career earnings list.
“I didn’t know I’d passed him,” Mote said. “That’s something I’m pretty proud of, because there’s no better bareback rider than Clint Corey.”
And there are very few people whom he holds in higher regard. When he was just getting started more than a decade ago, and winning “a little bit here and there,” Mote figured if he was ever going to pull it all together and become a champion, he had to learn from the best.
Corey, who won the 1991 world championship and qualified for the National Finals Rodeo 18 times – one shy of Bruce Ford’s record – was that guy for Mote.
“I had no idea how to win or even how to rodeo,” Mote said. “I went to a couple of Clint’s schools early, which is how I got to know him in the first place. Early in my career, I had traveled with a few different guys, but I wasn’t having any success. What I started to see in rodeo is that the winners were all hanging out together and traveling together. So I called him and asked if I could travel with him.
“It was a pretty bold thing to do at the time. I dang sure wasn’t making any waves in the sport. That was really my first big break. I learned so much about bareback riding – and about winning – just by watching and imitating everything Clint did. I got so much out of just sitting in the truck talking with him during those all-night drives to the next rodeo.”
After first joking that he might have to “crack back out” to get his record back, Corey said he is happy to see the mark fall because it reflects the progress of the sport.
“The money guys can win continues to get better,” Corey said, “and that’s a great thing for ProRodeo and the contestants. I was lucky to have been able to compete for as long as I did and win as much as I did. I wasn’t forced to retire because of injuries. Rodeo was good to me when I was going. I was making money then, and it’s just gotten better.”
It seemed only right that Mote went past Corey with a win at a major rodeo and that he had to do it under pressure.
With Peebles holding the lead going into the final day of the rodeo, Mote knew what was required to win a big check, and just three months removed from surgery to repair a sports hernia, he was up to the challenge on the final ride of competition.
“Beaver Fever is just a really good Growney horse,” Mote said. “I’d never had a chance to get on her before, but when I saw the draw, I knew I’d have an opportunity to win a check. She just jumped and kicked straight down the arena.
“I’ve seen them win first on her at a lot of rodeos, so I didn’t have to do any research when I saw the draw.”
Because he competed in the team roping, Mote was also the Red Bluff all-around champion, edging Cody DeMoss and Trevor Brazile.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 18th, 2011 at 5:53 pm by cstark and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.