Xplsoive Skies, a Horse of the Year in both bareback riding and bronc riding, will be permanently retired after a non-arena, career ending injury.
According to Bronc Riding Nation, the horse is expected to make a full recover and is 100 percent pasture sound.
Xplosive Skies is coming off a 2023 season in which she transitioned to saddle bronc riding, where she was named Horse of the Year. According to ProRodeo Stock Stats, she did not have a single stock score below 21.5 last year and averaged a score of 45. She helped World Champion Zeke Thurston to multiple rides of 90+, including one to win Round 5 of the NFR. She also bucked off two NFR qualifiers, Wyatt Casper and Dawson Hay, in 2023.
In 2021, she was the PRCA Bareback Riding Horse of the Year when she bucked off half the cowboys that got and delivered 90-pointers for the other half. That included Clayton Biglow riding her for 92 points to win rodeos consecutive weekends in August. That season, she also had a whopping 48-point stock score in Ellensburg.
“She left harder than any horse I’ve ever been on, it was like being tied to a freight train. She bucked very honest, but hard,” three-time World Champion Tim O’Connell said. “Even when everything was perfect, you didn’t know if you were going to be there the next jump. Just an absolute incredible animal, like a piece of exploding dynamite going off underneath you.”
Xplosive Skies’ last out of her career was in Houston this year. She helped World No. 4 Sage Newman to 88 points in the Championship Round of RodeoHouston.