Stock contractors continued to search out bucking animals, with less and less results, until a Montana stock contractor named Ernest Tooke reasoned that if a horse could be bred to be gentle, then why not bred to buck? Tooke bought a draft horse named Prince and an Arabian stallion named Snowflake and introduced them to each other. It may not have been love at first sight for these horses, but they did produce some mean bucking broncs. While not all the offspring bucked, Tooke discovered his chances improved if he put the stallion with mares that also liked to buck. By crossing Snowflake's offspring with Prince, Tooke was also able to improve the size, strength, and bone structure of his horses, and a draft horse-type bucking horse evolved that the cowboys learned quickly to recognize. Thus began the science of breeding bucking horses.
Today, virtually all PRCA stock contractors breed bucking horses. Many breed bucking bulls as well. Although raising horses is usually more expensive than buying them, it has become one of those necessary evils for stock contractors. Stock contractor Harry Vold runs one of the most successful breeders in rodeo. Vold stocks (and controls) some of the biggest rodeos in business, including Cheyenne Frontier Days. His awards have included PRCA's stock contractor of the year. Vold hails from his sprawling 25,000-acre ranch near Pueblo, Colorado. He is especially proud of a horse named Bobby Joe Skoal, a cowboy-voted top saddle bronc, and the first winner that Vold had raised entirely on his own.
While Vold has been successful with horses, Californian John Growney has had similar results with bulls, owner of Red Rock, one of the greatest bulls in rodeo history. Red Rock went unridden through his entire career until retirement in 1987. Growney brought the famous bull out of retirement in 1988 for a promotion sporting a special series of bull rides that pitted Red Rock against 1987 world champion bull rider Lane Frost. In the seven-round series Lane Frost figured Red Rock out and on the fourth trip, he became the only man in history to ride the bull.
Growney works with Don Kish, a man concerned with breeding top-quality bucking bulls. The two developed a breeding program built around Red Rock, crossing the bull with the offspring of another Hall of Famer bull Oscar. The result is a line of bucking bulls with pedigrees that line the Hall of Fame walls, and the pockets of Growney and Kish.
