The McCartney’s own “CR Tuff King,” better known as “Teddy,” earned a total of $73,200 at the 2025 Gold Buckle Futurity World Finals in Abilene, Texas, Nov. 12–16, to close out his aged event career with wins in both the 6-and-Under breakaway and calf roping.
In the breakaway roping, 2025 NFBR Qualifier Cheyanne rode Teddy to an aggregate score of 942.62, worth $10,000 and $26,800 in the Elite Stallion and Breeder Incentives, which will be split between sire Woody Be Tuff and breeder Center Ranch.
In the calf roping, Cody rounded up an additional $10,000 for the average win with a score of 902.88, and repeated the incentive paydays with a total of $25,400 earned.
“We’d have to add up his LTE, but he’s got to have won $250,000, $300,000,” Cody said of the sorrel gelding. “And now we have something to go rodeo on, instead of just buying a $150,000 horse.”
That number becomes even more impressive when you consider that the McCartney’s only purchased Teddy back from a friend and began showing him his 5-year-old year.
“For only being 6 years old, we’ve really put a lot on him this year and from the rodeos to the futurities, he takes it all good,” Cheyanne said. “He is just a really kind horse, so he really wants to please and he’s looking to do his job. I feel like he’s just a good teammate. It would be pretty tough to sell him now. Cody and I both rode him at a lot of rodeos—and at the same rodeos. We both rode him at Cheyenne, Casper, Estes Park. He’s a hard horse to replace.”
Bred by the Center Ranch, Solo Select sent Teddy to the McCartney’s for training as a 3-year-old. He was then sold to a friend before they had the opportunity to buy him back about a year later.
“After I sold him, my wife was aggravating me about how much she liked him and roped good on him,” Cody said. “So, when the opportunity came to buy him back, we had to. The horse is just athletic. He’s just got stuff that you can’t teach. He has above average run. He reads the calf good and just he’s a special talent.”
Cheyanne added that when they initially sold Teddy, there weren’t as many futurity opportunities as there are in 2025.
“There was the Riata breakaway and the [AQHA] World show, but it didn’t make as much sense for us to keep multiple young horses,” Cheyanne explained. “But now there is a lot of opportunity to win money at events like the Gold Buckle and Royal Crown, and I think that people are starting to catch on to that, and then [afterwards] they have something to go rodeo on.”
Teddy has put an exclamation point on that fact, too, proving himself outside the show arena this year. In 2025 alone, Cheyanne won the Spicer Gripp Memorial Open Breakaway and Windy Ryon Breakaway for a total of $32,984.
“What Shane [Hanchey] and the Gold Buckle are doing—rodeo is the goal for these horses. I know we’ve seen several, Shane’s had several Haven [Meged] and Shelby, they’re giving us opportunity to go to these events, win a lot of money and season our horses to when they age out of their futurity year, the top ropers have a product that they want to go ride and can win on.” – Cody McCartney
2025 Gold Buckle Futurity World Finals
Back in the futurity pen, Teddy closed out his aged event career with a bang. He started the week with Cody in the saddle, and the pair made up for a bobble at the AQHA World Show with the calf roping win.
“I made the finals on him at the AQHA World show and broke the barrier, so I was glad to redeem myself a little and make a good run in the short round,” Cody said. It was a tough [finals,] but I had a really good calf. And the neat thing about Teddy at the futurities is he some young horses, the more you run on them, they get a little nervous in the box or fall apart. But with Teddy, the more you run, the better he gets. The short round run Cheyanne made on him was his eighth run of the show, and he was probably better on the eighth run than he was in the first run.”
Not even 24 hours later, Cheyanne was backing Teddy in the box for the breakaway roping. According to her, the most important run for her on Teddy was her first one, because she stayed clean on the barrier and set them up for a successful average bid.
