Patricia Anne McCaw

Patricia Anne McCaw born in 1942 in Seattle, Washington, passed away, January 31, 2025. 

 She will always be remembered by so many throughout her many travels. As Mary Ann Toohey, shares some funny stories. When she first moved to Big Sky, Montana, to be close to the mountain and ski: she called up the dealer and bought herself a little Subaru Outback, flew into town, and was picked up by the salesman. Once she was given the car keys, she went out to find that it was a stick shift—and she had never driven one before. She managed to get a couple miles down the road before calling up her newfound friends in Big Sky to come get her and teach her how to drive a stick shift, which she did for many years. That was until the year she won the 5D truck in Texas. She won the tie on the flip of a coin and was once again shocked to see it was a stick shift! She was scared she might blow a shift in front of hundreds of people, so she had a friend drive the truck out for her. She was very capable, though, of figuring out how to make things work. Her first barrel racing lessons on a horse she bought from me were on Image in 1991. He was 10 years old, a racehorse from Oklahoma with a 99 speed index. He was gentle and kind, taking care of Pat like she was a baby. I don’t think she ever fell off of him—he always managed to catch her! One of Pat’s biggest problems was not talking. Because she was alone, she talked all the time—even in the middle of a barrel run. She would talk all the way through her barrel run and then to the first person she made eye contact with! But she never, ever talked bad about a person. She just didn’t see through those lenses in life. Pat helped Jeff and I pick out the placement of the home we built on the bases of the Bridger Mountains in Bozeman and she spent many days and nights there riding with me and sharing meals of Chinese food, or taste testing Jeffs newest barbeque rib recipes. She never showed up empty handed, always had San Fransico sour dough bread for us, and brought back treasures from her Hong Kong shopping trips. She would bring back sharks fin for us to make soup with and all sorts of different things from China, probably not allowed now a days! We never did make the sharks fin soup! 

 Flying for just about every airline in existence, she started in 1963 (I remember that because it was the year I was born, and for some reason that sticks). She would build up her retirement, and that company would sell. She’d take her retirement, buy a new car, horse, or house, and start anew with another airline. Until the end, she stuck it out with United to get to full retirement. Flying was her job, horses were her passion, and dogs just listened to her talk—so they were her companions! In 1999, Pat found our son Austin’s first pony from an older lady who used him for cart pulling in Billings. For $800, we got Top Gun—a little white pony who was as much of a character as Pat was. He helped develop Austin’s love for horses to this day, and at age 27, he still thanks Pat for that. Her real heart horse was Ketchup, who came from the Heinze ranch. I had bought him when he was 4 as a cutting horse. He was so easy to train on barrels because of that, and I had him just to the stage of adding speed when Pat bought him around 1998. She slowed things down to a pace that made him so solid for the rest of his life. He ran the same race most of the time, within tenths of a second on the same pattern. He was so consistent that she was always in the 5D money at the big races and 4D at the smaller ones. I can't remember if she ever fell off of him, I don't think so, but I know there were some close calls when he would turn so fast and she was high in the saddle! It was a good thing she learned on Image first! She was so dedicated to him that for the last few years, she never left her property for more than a couple of hours to stick to his feeding regimen. With no teeth, he had to be fed like a baby, and he was her baby. His monumental win of the Booger Barter truck was so exciting for Pat—it was like winning the world for her. I think as soon as she passed, she would have reunited with Ketchup first, over everyone and any animal, he was just her best ever friend. So, to the two of them and all the past animals she loved and a few people, she is with them all now! Miss her but happy for her more than anything! She had a quick departure, and we can be so thankful for that. - Mary Ann and Jeff Toohey