Knight won second in a bucking contest a few months after beginning training in 1918.
Calgary Stampede founder
Guy Weadick invited him to compete at the Stampede, which he did in 1924, winning second place in the Canadian Bucking Horse Championship event by 1/10th of a point. He toured with the
Alberta Stampede Company, riding
Midnight for the first time in October 1926 in
Montreal. He won the 1927 Canadian and North American Open bucking championships and was awarded the
Prince of Wales' Cup. At the 1930 Calgary Stampede, Knight won the Canadian Championship Bucking event for the second time, and weeks later, won the 1930 bucking event at the
Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo. In 1931, Knight won the World Series Rodeo bucking event held in Madison Square Garden, New York City, and was chosen to compete against three other riders (the bucking event winners of the 1931 Rodeos at
Calgary,
Pendleton, Oregon, and Cheyenne) for the
Jack Dempsey Trophy, which Knight won at
Reno, Nevada in the
Ride of Champions event held in June 1932. He went on to win the bucking event at the 1932
Pendleton Round-Up in Pendleton, Oregon. Knight entered the Calgary Stampede in 1933, again winning both the North American Open Bucking Championship and the Canadian Championship Bucking event, and was presented with the Prince of Wales' Cup for perpetuity. Later in 1933, Knight won the bucking event held at the
World's Fair Rodeo in Chicago. Later that year,
Wilf Carter recorded "Pete Knight, The King of the Cowboys." The same year, Knight performed screen tests and rode bucking horses in movies for
Tom Mix at Los Angeles. In 1934, Knight was invited to ride in England with the
Tex Austin Rodeo Troupe. Later in 1934, Knight was invited to
Melbourne, Australia, where he rode in the
Stewart McColl pageant with fellow rider
Yakima Canutt. The
Rodeo Association of America (RAA) named Knight the World Champion Bronc Rider for 1932, 1933, 1935, and 1936. At the Rodeo held in Boston Gardens in 1936, Knight helped organize the Cowboy strike, becoming a founding member of the
Cowboys Turtle Association (CTA) in 1936. On May 23, 1937, Knight was trampled to death by a horse called "Duster", at the
Hayward Rodeo in
California. He was buried at
Lone Tree Cemetery in
Fairview near Hayward; his remains were later reinterred in 1960 at the Greenwood cemetery in
Hot Springs, Arkansas. Knight's cups, trophies, saddles and buckles became a permanent fixture at the
National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, US. In his hometown of Crossfield, Alberta, the town named its arena in honor of Pete Knight, and holds an annual "Pete Knight Days Rodeo". ==Honors==