Oklahoma’s Cody McCartney won the 2024 Gold Buckle Fall Event’s Tie-Down Roping Futurity on a 4-year-old Metallic Cat stallion named Tizz, just part of his two-day win streak worth $71,750 in Abilene, Texas, Nov. 14-15.

McCartney and his wife, 2023 National Finals of Breakaway Roping Average Champ Cheyanne, left the Taylor Telecom Arena with a massive $115,425 across the tie-down and breakaway.

Winning Breakdown:

CalfRoping.com: What were the highlights this week for you?

Cody McCartney: Well, I won the Breeder’s Incentive in the Maturity on a Woody (Be Tuff) horse named CR Tuff King, and I placed in the average on him. He’s been a great horse.

He’s mainly been a breakaway horse. Cheyanne rode him at Cheyenne and a couple rodeos and at Riata—that’s the horse she won the Riata on him.

CR: So when did you start tying down on him?

CM: I have messed with him tying down a little, but he hasn’t had much of it. I just started him a month or two ago to have him ready to enter there.

He’s just a good horse. He can run, he can stop. Cheyanne had the hard part done on him. She has wanted to ride him at the rodeos more than she has, but he’s only 5, so we tried to keep him on the back burner to not put too much on him.

CR: What’s the post-futurity plan for that horse?

CM: We’ll keep tying down on him and go to the Gold Buckles and Royal Crowns next year. When he ages out, we’ll make a plan for him. He’ll hopefully be a rodeo horse for Cheyanne. She placed on him in the breakaway this week, too, and she won a round and placed in the Breeder’s Incentive. That’s one of the futurity horses that, if we do our job, he’ll win money.

CR: How did that horse get started to end up so good?

CM: He was started in cow horse, and he went through the Solo Select Sale as a 3-year-old. We rode him at the RFA. But then he got strangles, and he didn’t get rode for almost a year and almost died. The people who owned him had him kicked out, and we bought him back early this year. He was thin, he’s got a special spot with us because he’s had tough luck.

CR: Tell me about the horse you won the Futurity on, too.

CM: That’s Tizz. McCollee Land and Livestock—Keith Nellesen and Clint and Lance Robinson—own this horse. He’s out of a really good Woody Be Tuff mare that won a bunch. We got him as a 3-year-old, and I won fourth on him at the World Show. Cheyanne placed on him at the Riata.

His future will be to keep showing and futuritying, and then go back to Keith and Clint and they’ll breed and ride him.

CR: You and Cheyanne won a ton this week. What did you think of this event?

CM: Shane (Hanchey) and Kaleb (Driggers) and Cole (Davison) and Jeremy (Barwick), the work they put into it is second to none. We’ve been missing this. The team ropers got their futurities built up, and you see horses get futuritied on, then a rodeo guy buys them, and we’ve been missing that in our event. Before they started these events, you’d go to your weeknight jackpots on your 5-year-old and get your butt kicked and donate to Shad Mayfield or Haven Meged on their rodeo horses. Now that we have these, you can have these, you can compete against horses their age and season your horse and still win big money. For both calf roping and breakaway, the horses have gotten so expensive you can’t find a rodeo horse. The guys at Gold Buckle, they want us to be able to ride these horses for a few years and have a product you can sell the NFR guys that they can go on and rodeo with. Guys are catching on that they can have young horses and bring them along through the futurities and not have to spend $250,000 to $300,000 on a rodeo horse. I know yesterday, the who’s who of breakaway was there. I’m hoping that with the youth breakaway and limited tie-down, there’s something for everybody at these events, so more people will start to come. More rodeo guys should be here—the Gold Buckle is the perfect format with it being timed and judged combined. It fits everybody. They have the intermediate classes, the stallion payout, the judging—Blair Burk, CR Bradley, Dave Black, Tyler Waters—they’re all very knowledgeable. They’re getting the best to judge it. They’re top notch, and it needs to continue to grow. You show up there, there’s no politics. You have a nice horse, make four good runs and you’ll get paid. It’s something the calf ropers and breakaway need to start getting behind.

These judges don’t mind a rodeo run. They want your horses doing stuff that will help you win at the rodeos. They like that. It’s not where you have to wave your slack back and show your horse off. They want something that can go to the NFR.