A win to take Oklahoma boys Bubba Buckaloo and Joseph Harrison to the top of the PRCA Prairie Circuit? We’ll take it.
Bubba Buckaloo and Joseph Harrison are making it count on the home front, winning the 96th Woodward Elks Rodeo and $4,674 a man heading into the summer. With the help of their equine teammates “Frank” and “The Governor,” the Oklahoma team capitalized on a good steer and their comfort in the Woodward arena to clock a 4.5-second run, not long after taking wins at Claremore and Guymon, both in Oklahoma.
“We’ve been in that [Woodward] arena a lot since we were kids,” said Harrison, of Marietta, Oklahoma. “The [Oklahoma] state high school finals used to be there. We’ve run a lot of steers in that arena together. It’s one of my favorite places we get to go throughout the year.”
After hearing from the ropers in the slack that their M-brand heifer had potential, the plan was simple: catch the steer as fast as possible.
“We knew that Cody Snow and Hunter [Koch] had her in the slack,” said Kingston, Oklahoma’s Buckaloo. “She was quite a bit slower than the rest of them, or just really good, so my job was just to get out of the barrier and catch her. She was so good, I just ran all the way to her and set her up and [Harrison] heeled her fast. That’s pretty much all you have to do on a cow like that.”
Harrison kept his Woodward game plan fairly simple.
“Just try to catch the steer as fast as you can,” Harrison said.
Breaking down the Woodward horsepower
Buckaloo stepped on his go-to mount Frank, registered Brooks Feature, the head horse he saddles everywhere that matters. If the brown gelding looks familiar, he is the same Frank that was named Top Head Horse of the 2025 BFI in Guthrie, Oklahoma, this March.
Harrison rode The Governor, or Freckles Instant Coffee, who recently returned from injury and is the same government official he was riding in 2022 when he qualified for the NFR with then-partner Chad Masters. No stranger to good horsepower, he is excited to have the sorrel gelding back in his string for the summer.
Prairie Circuit success
The team’s Oklahoma success didn’t stop in Woodward. They also claimed the win in Claremore and survived the “muley madness” in Guymon a few weeks earlier.
“[Guymon] is my favorite rodeo of the year,” Harrison said. “Don’t get me wrong, I realize there’s horsemanship and a gameplan with your partner all year long. But at a rodeo like that, roping walking-fresh muleys where they don’t typically leave very good or handle very good—it puts a whole lot more on your horse and your partner. Having a great partner that you can get on the same page with and a good horse is crucial.”
Buckaloo admits he feels the pressure of the muleys.
“I’ve had a lot of luck [at Guymon],” added Buckaloo. “I dang sure don’t feel uncomfortable roping [mulleys].”
At Claremore, with a more user-friendly start, Buckaloo nailed the barrier and had the run started before the steer could get rolling. The team stopped the clock in 4.5 seconds and pocketed $3,296 each. Across those three rodeos, the team pocketed more than $16,000 and now sit No. 1 in the Prairie Circuit with $16,819.26 and $16,231.66, respectively.
Summer Plans
The summer run has officially begun, but Buckaloo intends to hit the amateur rodeos in Texas through Cowboy Christmas before heading north to Wyoming for The Daddy of ’em All in Cheyenne and other major stops across the state.
Harrison will be taking his futurity horses to Fort Worth for the ARHFA Cowtown Classic over the Fourth of July. The team is also entered in the prestigious Spicer Gripp Memorial Roping the first week of August.
