Cheyanne and Cody McCartney racked up the earnings across the breakaway and tie-down.
ABILENE, TEXAS — Oklahoma horse trainers Cheyanne and Cody McCartney netted $115,425 in two days of Gold Buckle Futurities competition at the 2024 Fall Event at the Taylor Telecom Arena in Abilene, Texas Nov. 14-15, 2024.
Cody, 34, won the event’s Tie-Down Roping Futurity on the 2020 stallion Tizz, by Metallic Cat out of the Woody Be Tuff mare CR Tuff Tizzy, with a score of 896.26 worth $7,500 for the average plus another $21,000 in the Gold Buckle Futurity’s Stallion Incentive (that’s split 50/50 with the owners of the horse’s sire, Metallic Cat). Tizz also picked up a go-round placing, and McCartney won the Intermediate on him for another $1,000 and $3,650, respectively.
“He’s owned by McColee Land and Livestock,” Cody explained of the stud. “We got him as a 3-year-old, and he’s gone to a few shows and Cheyanne placed on him at the Riata. Before this, he hadn’t won anything substantial because he hadn’t been many places, but this is huge. He’s going to continue to go to the futurities, then I think he’ll go back to his owners in Utah, and they’ll breed and ride him. Hopefully, Clint Robinson will take him to some rodeos.”
Cody didn’t win the Maturity, but his earnings in it still hit $38,600 on four horses—Bar W Roaney 1909, Hesa Lucky Sugar, CR Tuff King and Serina. Cody won the most on the Woody Be Tuff son CR Tuff King, on whom he won third in the Elite Stallion Incentive and first in the Elite Breeder Incentive.
“He’s mainly been a breakaway horse,” Cody said. “Cheyanne rode him at Cheyenne and a couple of rodeos, and she won the Riata on him. I’ve messed with him tying down, but about a month or two ago, I got more serious to have him ready to enter here.”
The horse, who’d won $57,392 before the Gold Buckle Fall Event, also placed with Cheyanne in a go-round and the Breeder’s Incentive in the Maturity Breakaway.
“These events give us so many ways to win money,” Cheyanne, 27, who won the 2023 National Finals of Breakaway average title, said. “The Gold Buckles have gotten better every single event. The calves have been good, and this was the toughest one by far.”
The Gold Buckle Futurities—in their second year—give trainers, rodeo contestants, and everyday ropers a chance to season their young horses for big money, Cody pointed out, something that, especially in the tie-down and breakaway, has been missing.
“Shane and Kaleb and Cole and Jeremy—the work they put into it is second to none,” Cody said. “Before they started these events, you’d go to your weeknight jackpots on your 5-year-old and just have to be added money and donate to Shad Mayfield or Haven Meged on their rodeo horses or, in the breakaway, Martha Angelone on her best one. Now that we have these, we can compete against horses their age, season our horses, and still win big money. Horses have gotten so expensive you can’t find a rodeo horse, but the guys at Gold Buckle, they want us to be able to ride these horses for a few years and have a product you can sell to the NFR guys that they can go on and rodeo with.”
