I found out from a knowledgeable friend in Texas that either the crowd scared the horse or......there was a drone overhead and that may have scared him. The drone is how we could see from above, the arena at times. This friend said he saw a video of that calf roper petting his horse in the back after the run.  He was interviewed and said something to the effect of "none of us are perfect. I'm not and my horse isn't. It wasn't our time to win. We've been a long ways together, this horse and me, and we'll just head to the next rodeo."

Imagine having that attitude after losing $1,100,000! What a guy! We will see more of him, I bet.