Wyatt Muggli and Casey McCleskey conquered tough steers and a tough field of competition to win the 2024 Prairie Circuit Finals in Duncan, Oklahoma, with a 26.7 on three head, Saturday, Oct. 19.

Muggli and McCleskey pocketed $5,697 apiece between the rounds and the average win, topping a field of NFR teams like Coleman Proctor and Logan Medlin, J.C. Yeahquo and Buddy Hawkins, and Andrew Ward and Kollin VonAhn.

“All my heroes were in it,” McCleskey, 25, said. “Kollin (VonAhn) and all those guys, so it’s fun to rope with them for sure. Then to come out on top—it was great.”

After switching partners up in 2023, the Oklahoma and Texas guys—who roped together in 2021 and 2022—decided to team back up, and it’s paid off.

“We’ve run so many together and we practically lived together for a while a couple of years ago,” Muggli, 28, said. “We get along pretty good and know what’s going on and what the other person’s going to do.”

Play-by-play

Muggli and McCleskey had a strong but honest steer in the first round. Muggli played it smart on the barrier, making sure they knocked him down and they were right outside the money with a 7.3.

They remembered their second-round steer from Round 1 as one that started slow but then ran hard in the field. For Muggli and McCleskey, though, he was quicker at the line.

“I waited on that, but he just followed the gates,” Muggli said with a laugh. “And when the gates opened, I knew I was in trouble, and I dropped; I was late. It was one of those times you knew you weren’t going to be able to hit him, so I ran my horse until our steer started checking off and veering off the bucking chutes. I headed him down there in that corner.”

While it wasn’t ideal, they made the run work and stayed in the average. They entered Round 3 fourth overall and, despite thinking they couldn’t win the average, misses, legs and barriers plagued the field, opening up their chances. They won the round with a 6.3 for $2,279 a man and took home the average title. 

Muggli credits McCleskey for cleaning things up on the heel side.

“Casey did a great job all week,” Muggli said. “The first steer was big and strong and real wide, and he did a good job heeling him. Then the second one was really hard to heel. Of course, we were running him and he was running as fast in the circle as he was down the arena, so he did a really, really good job this week.”

Duncan horsepower

On the head side, Muggli rode a 19-year-old gelding he bought seven years ago from Cory Kidd. Kidd was staying with Muggli, and when he headed back out on the rodeo road he left “Kidd” behind.

“It was pretty smart—he left the horse with me and I bought him,” Muggli said with a laugh. “I had another I was riding at the time, so he was kind of my second-string horse. But he was always the horse I ended up riding. I’d say, ‘Well, this setup isn’t going to fit this horse, so I’m going to ride Kidd,’ or ‘Well, the steers are going to be too strong here, so I’m going to ride Kidd.’ He’s the one I ride everywhere now.”

McCleskey had the help of 8-year-old futurity-turned-rodeo horse Titos Special Nite. McCleskey’s boss Steve Orth trained and futuritied on the gelding, and McCleskey had the opportunity to show him as a 4-year-old. Four years later, McCleskey bought him this July.

“When I moved back here, I sold one of my good horses, so I was riding him here and there,” McCleskey said. “Then the opportunity came to buy him, and the Horn family let me purchase him from them. It’s been really good. He’s been a blessing for me for sure.”

NFR Open

Both Muggli and McCleskey have been to Colorado Springs before but not since it became the NFR Open. Having the opportunity to rope for a major purse is something they look forward to.

“I’ve got a little boy who’s about to be a year old, and we go to lots of amateur rodeos and circuit rodeos,” Muggli said. “Between the amateur finals and circuit finals, this time of year is when we are actually able to get a little ahead as far as our rodeoing. Going up there is going to be a very good deal. There’s lots of good rodeos that time of year up there, so we’re real excited to go.”