story by Lily Weinacht
Pickup man Carter Williams has been pulling flank straps and setting bronc riders safely to the arena floor for nearly 20 years. Chosen as one of the pickup men to work the 2016 GCPRA finals this month, the 40 year old from Willcox, Arizona, found one of his many niches in rodeo while helping Scott and Chad McDaniel of Slash M Rodeo Company. “They got a call from one of their pickup men saying he was 30 minutes away, broke down on I-17,” Carter recalls. “I told them I’d picked up for my friends in college, so I picked up the rodeo that weekend. They told me I could have the job as long as I wanted, and I’ve been doing it ever since!”
Well versed in the rodeo world from a young age, Carter grew up team roping and tie-down roping in junior high and high school rodeo, before college rodeoing for Central Arizona Community College. His dad team roped professionally for many years and managed ranches across Arizona, and continues to rope today. Carter is primarily a heeler, competing in several GCPRA rodeos and the World Series of Team Roping. He qualified for the WSTR Finale IX in 2014.
Carter’s western background also accounts for his love of everything bronc, from watching the horses buck, to the finesse of working with them in the arena. “I pretty much know every horse Scott has, and I get to watch them develop and see which ones make better horses,” he says. “A lot of these guys getting on bucking horses – and even some of the bull riders – are my friends, and I like to spend time with them and help them out.”
He’s always made his own pickup horses, starting with his rope horses and finding several that had enough try for the job. “It takes a certain horse to run 90 miles an hour, then stop and turn around, or drag a bull out of the arena. I’ve been lucky with some really good horses,” says Carter. One of the horses he trained was the third highest selling horse out of nine last year during Benny Binion’s World Famous Bucking Horse and Bull Sale in Las Vegas. At their request, Carter is bringing another horse to the sale this year. “It gives me some exposure to the bigger stock contractors, and meeting them and some of the riders is a pretty good deal, with a chance to make some extra money on the side. I do whatever I can to help those guys out.” This year, Carter is bringing a big Paint, Koda, to the sale. “He works really well, and he’s gentle. My neighbor kids ride him more than I do. Another one of my good horses is a gray I’ve had for about six years named Fibber. I have another gray we call Hollywood that I’ll start hauling, and a sorrel named Dillinger that I’m seasoning for a friend.”
Carter also has several head of cows, and works for ranches in the area, though he can often be found at the controls of a motor grader, building house pads and roads. Any spare time goes to fishing, or spending time with his family, including his grandparents. “My family has a cottonseed oil mill they just started this year, so I help with that,” he adds. “There’s a pretty high demand for cottonseed oil for cooking, and even drip oil in irrigation wells. The waste, like the hulls, is made into a cake that’s really good for livestock. I also ride a lot of outside horses, so I basically work for myself, and that keeps me freed up to rodeo.” He’s had numerous offers on horses he’s raised and trained, and his latest goal is seeing his breeding program develop. He’s steadily putting together a herd of broodmares, and stands a stud he raised. “My stud has that old Quarter Horse breeding,” Carter finishes, “so my goal is to get those foundation horses out there.”
