Despite Switching Horses, Matt Reeves Keeps Winning
While Matt Reeves’ outstanding horse, Rattle, passed away April 17, the veteran steer wrestler has kept his season going strong aboard Roy.
When Reeves’ horse Do Get Famous “Rattle,” the 2019 Steer Wrestling Purina Horse of the Year presented by AQHA, passed away, it was a devastating blow to last season’s Wrangler National Finals Rodeo average winner.
Rattle passed away of a ruptured stomach. She was 8.
Reeves, who is leading the PRCA | RAM World Standings with $82,929, fortunately still had Roy, 12, in his stable.
“Roy has stepped up, and maybe they know (when a horse passes away),” said Reeves, 41. “I have won a pile of money on Roy. I won The American on him in 2018, I won rounds at Calgary (Stampede) on him and I won first, first and first at Pecos (Texas) last year. That horse has placed at every rodeo he’s been to this year and won multiple checks, except for Jackson, Miss., and that’s because we didn’t do our part. He was already a very, very good horse, he just wasn’t her (Rattle).”
Reeves acknowledged having Roy saved his season.
“I would have been lost had I not had another horse,” he said. “I’m looking for something else to train now so I can get something going so I will have two again, but I haven’t found that horse that I want to try and make. He (Roy) was a great horse, and she (Rattle) came along. I bought her because I thought she had the ability and all of a sudden, she surpassed him (Roy). People called him (Roy) the back-up horse all last year because we would ride him other places. It was hard to put the back-up label on him. I would call him the other horse.”
Over the weekend of May 29-31 at the Super Series Finish in Fort Worth, Texas, Reeves, riding Roy, tied for first in Bracket 4’s first round with a 3.8-second run and was third in round two with a 4.7-second time. He earned $3,500 to count toward the world standings.
At Cave Creek (Ariz.) Rodeo Days, May 22-24, Reeves took top honors with a 3.7-second run riding Roy.
A year ago, at Evanston (Wyo.) Cowboy Days, Aug. 31-Sept. 2, Reeves won the rodeo with a 3.5-second run aboard Roy.
“It’s one of those things where you want to have two horses,” Reeves said. “Rodeoing the way we rodeo now, you need two horses. I just happen to be in such an unbelievable spot because I had two great horses. I still have a great horse I just don’t have that horse (Rattle). That horse was different. Having (Roy) is a tremendous thing. I thought about selling him and thought I was going to quit rodeoing. I decided I wasn’t going to quit rodeoing, and I’m so glad I didn’t sell him or anything because I would be in a pickle.”
Reeves is planning to be in action again at the Woodward (Okla.) Elks Rodeo, June 9, and the Coleman (Texas) PRCA Rodeo, June 12.
“There’s a lot of comfort in the fact that I already knew this horse (Roy) and I already knew what to expect from this horse,” Reeves said. “I made this horse too and I know all the buttons to push, so it makes it easy to ride him.”
Courtesy of PRCA