Photos by Taylor Gilkey
A fiery little pistol from the Frontier Rodeo Company, Gun Fire is a bareback horse that can get a guy to 90 and is shaping up to earn herself another Horse of the Year title in the bareback riding.
The buckskin mare’s first out of the 2023 season was at the Guymon Pioneer Days Rodeo in Oklahoma where rookie bareback rider Dean Thompson won with a 92.5-point ride.
“If you stump your toe, she will buck you off, but she will take you to the pay window too,” says Heath Stewart, General Manager for Frontier Rodeo.
Stewart regards the young buckskin mare to be one of the company’s most promising up-and-comers — which is why she’s been bumped up to the “A-team,” as the ranch hands jokingly refer to their handful of top performers, spending her time in the company of renowned NFR horses such as Medicine Woman, Maple Leaf, and Full Baggage.
“Gunfire is a lot younger than Medicine Woman and them. The past two years, she really came on,” Stewart says.
But she hasn’t let success go to her head. When she isn’t competing, Gunfire is playful and sweet tempered. “She’ll come up and eat out of your hand,” Stewart says. “She’s got a real good personality. She’s not wild; she’s very gentle.”
