Cory Kidd and Dustin Davis jumped into bubble territory after pocketing $3,320 a man for the Parker County Sheriffs Posse Frontier Days And PRCA Rodeo win in Weatherford, Texas, June 8, 2024. The now No. 16 header and No. 19 heeler, however, aren’t chasing the bright lights of Las Vegas this year.

The pair of 34-year-olds both plan to stay closer to their homes in Texas this summer as they’re both expecting newborns later this year. With $32,092.44 won the year thus far, Kidd believes he has more won at this point in the year than in years past, but he still feels it’s important to not go as hard.

“I don’t know what laid it on my heart,” Kidd, originally from Statesville, North Carolina, said. “I didn’t have horses that fit me real good and I got another kid on the way and I’m just like man, if I didn’t have everything set up to win, it’s so hard to win anymore. Especially if you don’t have horses you love, you’re not set up to win you’re just hoping to win, and it’s too big of a gamble.”

For Kidd, 2024 will be the first time since 2016 that he hasn’t hit the road with an NFR qualification as the end goal. Davis, on the other hand, generally spends the summers at home, amateur and circuit rodeoing. Knowing he also wanted to stay home, he and Kidd swapped winter rodeo partners—Kidd was heading for Tanner Braden at some of the winter rodeos and Davis heeled for Cyle Denison—for Weatherford weekend.

“I wasn’t really planning on ever rodeoing either,” said Davis, who has $27,557 won on the year. “It honestly just kind of flip flopped, so it was kind of perfect. Cory and I just pretty much were roping this last weekend, we were just kind of going to the circuit rodeos. This is like the last good week of circuit rodeos for a while in Texas. He needed one and I needed one that kind of worked out.”

How to win Weatherford

Kidd and Davis roped in the last performance in Weatherford, Saturday, June 8. With a 4.6 atop the leaderboard, they had to be fast, but Kidd wasn’t too wrapped up in a game plan. A good start was all he was focused on.

“I hit the pole and the steer was right there, so I was like, just relax and catch,” Kidd explained. “[The steer] was good; he was letting up and stepping to me, and I was able to pretty much take a real high-percentage throw and still be fast enough.”

Davis recognized their steer from a recent jackpot, and he performed exactly how he expected him to: be good and just hang on the end of the rope.

“I was just trying to stay away from the cow,” Davis said. “I didn’t want to get there too soon, so I was just trying to keep my distance, my separation, that way as soon as I was getting there, I could heel him and get a good finish on him.”

Their 4.4-second run took them to the pay window, and Kidd credits Davis for his shot and shutting the run down fast.

“That was a huge key with the wall being that close,” Davis said. “Heeling him fast and not bobbling his dallies or anything, putting it around the hips and stopping the steer. If he had slid any rope, then we’d get in the fence and not get as good a flag.”

Kidd and Davis also picked up a $691 check at the Mesquite Championship Rodeo and a $246 check at the Coleman PRCA Rodeo over the weekend to help add to their earnings.

Rodeoing without pressure

Though Davis sits inside the top 20 and has a good foundation built in the world standings race, he has no intentions of changing his summer plans.

“It’s fun to maybe daydream about a little bit, but at the same time, I’ve got $25,000 or $30,000 won and that’s a quarter of the way there,” Davis explained. “And I’ve counted more rodeos probably than a lot of people to get to that point because I knew I wasn’t rodeoing. So it sounds fun, but I’m a realist. Even though I got more money won, they probably have eight or 10 rodeos on me that they’re going to use later on.”

Davis has built a clientele of outside horses and plans to keep that as his focus, while also amateur rodeoing and working to qualify for the Texas Circuit Finals.

As for Kidd, he’s rodeoing without the pressure. With no set rodeo plans for the summer, Kidd plans to bounce around and enter when and where he pleases, bringing the family along when possible and going to some summer rope horse futurities along the way.

“I may go up into Colorado for a week or two and do some vacation rodeoing,” Kidd said with a laugh. “I’ve always wanted to do it. It seems like when you’re rodeoing, you don’t really go to Steamboat Springs, but if you do, you have to rope and leave. Well, now I can do whatever I want to because I’m not really after anything. So, I’m going to go and rope and hang out for a few days if I want to, me and my family are going to go do all that. I think that’s what I’m looking forward to most this summer.”