Here comes Keaton! How an Oklahoma State senior is living her dream as a second-generation Spirit Rider | News

Located 60 miles east of Boone Pickens Stadium, Stone Ridge Ranch is a quiet counterpoint to the 50,000 roaring fans who come here to watch their beloved Oklahoma State Cowboys play. At the bottom of the hill on the 170-acre property is a stable where a horse named Black High Brows rests.

But no one calls him by his registered name. He is known as Bullet.

Black as the Stillwater night sky – full of dignity, grace, power and speed – few mascots in college football embody the heart and soul of their team like Bullet.

Keaton Cunningham, a senior at OSU, will have the privilege of being a Bullets Spirit Rider at every Cowboys home game this season. It's a duty she's been committed to since the day she was born.

“I grew up with this program and it is my life,” she said.

Her grandparents, Ernie and Wilma Roberts, are the owners of Stone Ridge Ranch. Her mother, Jennifer Roberts, is entering her 20th season as Spirit Rider team coordinator and was a Spirit Rider in the 2001 season, and her father, Ty Cunningham, was a Spirit Rider in 1998. They both rode the original Bullet.

While in college, Jennifer worked with the athletic department and the Board of Regents on behalf of the rodeo team. Through these interactions, she developed a relationship with former athletic director Harry Birdwell and former senior assistant athletic director Dave Martin.

When OSU's Department of Animal Science decided in 2005 that it could no longer support the Spirit Rider team, it returned Bullet – Bullet II – and his trailer to the athletic department.

Birdwell and Martin, under the guidance of riding coach Larry Sanchez, then called Jennifer and Ty, who were married at the time, and took responsibility.

Her leadership could not have had a more strenuous start. Three weeks before her first game, Bullet II contracted colic and died.

Bullet III arrived at Stone Ridge Ranch from Illinois two weeks later and served as OSU's mascot in 94 games over the next 14 seasons.

The day Bullet III retired — at halftime of OSU's 45-41 win over West Virginia on Nov. 17, 2018 — 15-year-old Keaton cried harder than she ever had in her life … until the day he died.

Keaton and Jennifer found it hard to love Black High Brows, or Lefty as they call him, in the same way as Bullet III.

“He was like another child to me. He was a very special horse,” Jennifer said. “It was just so hard to say goodbye.”

Black High Brows was a mounted hunter in his previous life. Jennifer thought that if he had heard gunshots before, he would be able to handle the noise at Boone Pickens Stadium.

But the nickname Bullet isn't something a horse gets for free. It has to be earned, and part of Black High Brows' audition included being around Paddle People, the Cowboy Marching Band and the Cheer Squad to replicate the game day experience.

Despite the roar and noise, he remained calm. That day he became Bullet IV.

“He's been a dream ever since,” Keaton said. “We don't cover his ears. We don't give him anything to calm him down. He goes in naturally and it doesn't seem to bother him at all.”

He's so laid-back that on his first day of play – a 56-14 OSU win over McNeese State on Sept. 7, 2019 – the team thought he was deaf. He stuck his head on the wall next to the paddle people and fell asleep.

“We had to wake him up so he could score his first touchdown,” Keaton said. “Then one day on the ranch, a motorcycle drove by, it backfired and it sounded like a gunshot. He lifted his head up, so he's not deaf. He just doesn't care.”

Those who know Bullet say he acts like a toddler. He has a quirky personality and doesn't like to stand still; he needs to be entertained.

He is also a trustworthy horse.

“It's a mutual trust,” Jennifer said. “I trust him to do what we ask of him, and he trusts us to keep him safe.”

Whether intentional or not, over time Keaton and Jennifer became friends with Bullet. There was no other option.

“I love him and I hope he loves me,” Keaton said. “It means a lot to me to be able to share this experience with him. He's a mix between a big brother and a best friend. He has a very special place in my heart and it always will be that way.”

Maintaining success a living mascot for 21 consecutive seasons requires a unique balance of professionalism, knowledge and passion.

Jennifer holds tryouts every spring to put together a team of seven students, but this year there will be eight. Each of them must have experience with horses, a good GPA and be personable. A college football game day is such an unnatural environment for a horse that the team must make sure Bullet feels comfortable wherever he goes.

“These are kids who either grew up in rodeo or showing horses at horse shows,” Jennifer said. “I want people to understand that it's their job to protect the horse and everyone around it, and that's not an easy job. We hope to make it look simple to the untrained eye.”

Jennifer has intentionally set up a high barrier to entry to learn how to join the team. She never announces an open tryout. Candidates must contact former team members or Jennifer herself to receive the application.

“That tells me that these kids really want to be part of this program,” she said. “I want to make sure these students represent themselves, me, the horse, the program and the university in the best light possible.”

The Spirit Rider team is selected by a panel of five to six judges consisting of Jennifer, former Pistol Petes, former Spirit Riders and Bullet's vet. The panel then selects the rider from the final team members.

Competitors will ride Bullet in the saddle and hold the flag in a pattern they have never practiced before. The rider will be announced later in the evening.

When Keaton applied for the position of rider this spring, she said she was more nervous than she had ever been in her life.

“I think it was because I spent 20 years watching people go through this process. I've been in the field myself and I know what a huge responsibility it is,” she said. “It was made abundantly clear to me at a very young age that if I wanted to attend OSU and ride Bullet, I would be held to the same standards and have the exact same expectations as the 37 people who came before me.”

Although Keaton admits that having her parents as former Spirit Riders and her mother as the team coordinator had advantages, she rejects the idea that she doesn't deserve this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

“I knew from the beginning that I had to be the best of the bunch because I wanted to feel like I deserved it for myself and for everyone else,” she said. “It wasn't given to me. I went and went through the same process as everyone else. It was so rewarding because I proved that I wasn't offered any shortcuts.”

Jennifer prohibits the team from carrying their phones on the field, mainly for safety reasons, but also to make sure they appreciate the experience for what it is.

“I love looking through that lens because I understand how precious these moments are and how fleeting they are and how quickly that time passes,” Jennifer said. “These are days that will leave an indelible mark on the hearts of every student who gets to be a part of this team, but certainly the person who gets to ride the horse.”

Similar to the cowboys, Intensive preparation is the key to victory for the Spirit Rider team on match day. Executing your run flawlessly is much more complex than simply riding a horse across a field.

Keaton and Bullet have been training daily in the weeks leading up to the season opener. Next to the Stone Ridge Ranch stables is a riding arena where the two are building their bond.

Keaton also has commitments to the Oklahoma State Pi Beta Phi fraternity, but that didn't stop her from commuting to Tulsa and back every day for the first two weeks of August to spend time with Bullet.

“It's like a person training for a marathon,” Keaton said. “He needs the endurance to withstand the heat on the field, so it's a lot of work to make sure he's in shape and ready.”

Bullet also needs to look better, and in early August he looked more brown than black. This is due to his skin bleaching from the sun.

Two weeks before the first day of play, he takes a grooming product called Black As Knight. Keaton said he'll be jet black in time for South Dakota State.

“We let him be a horse in the off-season because he's such a good boy and does everything we ask of him without complaining,” she said. “He deserves freedom.”

On the Spirit Rider team, Bullet's job looks easy, but the game days are long for him.

He leaves the ranch five hours before kickoff. The team meets him at the OSU horse center, where he is groomed and ridden to warm up.

He will then be available for 30 minutes of petting and photographs at the Hall of Fame Block Party and another 30 minutes at the OSU Alumni Center. He will then get a second warm-up in front of Old Central.

From there, he goes to his booth at Boone Pickens Stadium and rests there for up to 20 minutes before the pregame tape runs, then stands in the southwest tunnel for the entire game, waiting for the Cowboys to score.

After the game, he is unsaddled in the stadium, goes back to the riding center with the rest of the team and finally makes his way home.

It's a tough job, but Keaton said he loves it.

“A lot of people who criticize living mascots, especially horses, think we're forcing them,” she said. “If he was unhappy and didn't want to be there, you'd know because he'd act crazy. You can't force them to do what we ask of them. They either do it or they don't, and he does it with an incredible attitude, and that's what the last one did.”

Keaton's nerves increase as she and Bullet get closer to their first run together.

That makes him one of them.

“When we're under the tunnel and we go upstairs, he knows what time it is,” Keaton said. “To be quite honest, he's calmer than anyone on the field on game day. He just goes out there and does his job, so he's the thing that calms me down the most.”

Likewise, Jennifer isn't sure she fully understands what it will feel like when her eldest of three daughters – along with Falyn and Landry – follow in her footsteps and live out the dream she's had her entire life.

“I'm always focused when we're on the field, and on game day, the situation is so reactive that I'm always in problem-solving mode,” Jennifer said. “I want to be able to feel the proud mom moments, so I brought an extra person onto the team in hopes that I can step back and just take it all in.”

“There is no greater adrenaline rush than riding a horse as fast as possible across a football field in front of thousands of spectators. Now is her chance to shine and I am just happy for her.”

In order for Keaton to experience this for himself, the Cowboys need to score a lot of touchdowns.

“Our goal and the goal of the football team should be for Bullet to be tired at the end of every game,” Keaton said.