Pickett Pro Rodeo’s Cullen Pickett joined WSR on Wednesday fresh off being named the Remuda Award winner for the first time.
The award is given every year to the stock contractor with the most consistent pen of horses.
“It symbolizes that you had a great set of animals all year long top to bottom,” Pickett said. “There’s really not any bigger award that you can receive in our business for your livestock. It’s very, very important to us to be able to win it.”
Pickett tries to know each animal and which ones need more time off and which ones don’t.
“A lot of times the stress of the animals is from the trucking not the bucking at the rodeo,” he said. “They’re just like a tread on a tire, there’s only so much tread. You just gotta pick the right spots to spin the tire.”
The Remuda Award wasn’t the only thing Pickett had to celebrate. For the second year in a row, Night Crawler was named Bareback Riding Horse of the Year.
“It’s just like winning the NCAA Title back-to-back years, it’s tough, there’s a lot of obstacles in the way and adversity throughout,” he said. “She’s a special animal.”
At the 2024 NFR, Pickett Pro Rodeo will have 11 bareback horses and one bull.
