Peabody, Larry

In 1980, Larry Peabody was about to retire from professional rodeo after two rough seasons when a $1,000 refund check from the IRS arrived in the mail. He decided to rodeo until the funds ran out. Shortly after receiving the check, Peabody won the Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo and hit a hot streak. He never looked back. Peabody was always a consistent and modest rider who tended to the business at hand. Bruce Ford was often quoted as saying that if Larry Peabody ever figured out how good he was, he would be a world champion. In the Spring of 1981, Peabody won the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association Bareback Championship while competing for Dawson Community College. His title helped the team win a National Championship. That same year he qualified for his first National Finals Rodeo. At that NFR, Peabody set a high score record on Growney Brothers’ Dreamboat Annie with an 89. The score stood until it was broken by Billy Laye riding Beutler Brothers and Cervi’s Brown Bomber in 1995. While Peabody focused mainly on bareback riding, he earned enough money team roping to be a Montana Circuit All-Around Champion in 1982. He won the Montana Circuit Bareback Championship four times (1980-82, 1984). In a hard-fought battle in 1984, Peabody won the tenth round of the NFR aboard Mesquite Rodeo’s Bojangles and earned $2,000 more than Lewis Feild to win the gold buckle. After his championship run, Peabody gradually retired from rodeo to run a cattle ranch in Montana. He was inducted into the ProRodeo Hall of Fame in 2019.