Champions on hooves: Badlands Circuit celebrates rodeo horses

Minot, N.D. (October 20, 2025) – The best timed event rodeo horses in the Dakotas were recognized earlier this month at the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo in Minot, N.D.

Ernie, a ten-year-old gelding from the race track, got the recognition he deserved: Team Roping Head Horse of the Year.

Owned by Guy and Shanna Howell, Belle Fourche, S.D., Dashing Company, whose barn name is Ernie, was purchased by Howell as a three-year-old. The first roping Howell entered riding Ernie, he won.

“I roped the dummy on him,” he recalled, “and he did so exceptional that I thought, I just as well take him to a roping, because he’s got this figured out in three tries. It worked.”

The black gelding is “smarter than a whip,” he said, and has some Thoroughbred blood in him.

He’s also an escape artist, Howell said, untying himself when he’s at a rodeo or jackpot, and coming to find Howell.

“I’ve had him tied at the tie rack, and he would untie himself and untie the other horses,” he said. “I’ve had him untie himself and come and find me. It’s happened twice. I went to check the draw, got to visiting, and he got bored with being there. He untied himself, walked over and found me. To this day, if he gets tired of being tied up, he’ll still untie himself and stand there, just to let me know he can still do it.”

Ernie loves people and kids, but he does not like cattle or pigs.

“He’s scared to death of a cow,” Howell said. “If they’re running cattle up the alley, and I have to ride in the alley, the cows frighten him to death.”

Howell uses Ernie’s quirk to his advantage in the team roping. After they’ve roped a steer, the horse “turns and sees the head of that cow coming towards him, and he flies backwards. I think that’s why he runs backwards when he faces” after a team roping run. “It’s pretty comical, but I’m using his fear to work for my benefit.”

Howell loves his horse anyway, even with his idiosyncracies.

“When you win as much as I have on him, you put up with the quirks.” Howell and his heeler, Logan Schliinz, won the year-end title at this year’s Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo.

For the heeling, the Team Roping Heel Horse of the Year was won by Riley Curuchet’s horse, Cuttin In The Shade “Piney.”

Curuchet, who is Howell’s son-in-law, bought the horse from good friends in Arizona in the spring of 2025.

The nine-year-old sorrel gelding is “awesome,” he said. “He’s the gentlest, kindest horse, just a user-friendly nice horse.”

A grandson of Grays Starlight, a well-known National Cutting Horse Association performer and breeding stallion, the horse is cowy, Curuchet said.

This is the first year for Piney to win the award.

An up-and-coming mare won in the barrel racing.

Dashin On Fire “Mesa,” owned by Katie and Dustin Lindahl and ridden by Molly Otto, won the Barrel Horse Rising Star award.

A five-year-old, Mesa was futuritied this year and won over $100,000, including reserve champion titles at the Kinder Cup Futurity in February and the Minnesota Breeders Futurity in June.

Otto knew last year the horse was athletically ready to run barrels but her mind wasn’t ready.

“I sent her home because she was clocking and working really good, but I didn’t think mentally she was ready to handle the pressure of going to more futurities. I wanted to give her more time.”

This March, Otto needed her for a rodeo in Texas, so she ran the mare. At her first rodeo performance, she won sixth place. “I thought, wow, I think I actually have a rodeo horse,” Otto said.

Mesa went on to win checks at each of the seven consecutive rodeos Otto ran her in.

The horse is very athletic, she said.

“If you ever got to ride her, you’d know she’s a freak of nature, with the moves she can make. I tell people, I come out of our run and I’d feel like I was fighting for my life to stay on her back. She would be 100 miles per hour, it would feel like. She felt insane, a feeling I’ve never felt on any other horse.”

At the Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo, Otto won the average with a time of 41.02 seconds on three runs.

In the other events, the Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year was awarded to Rassy Mae, owned by Scott Kleeman, Killdeer, N.D. The Steer Wrestling Haze Horse of the Year was awarded to Odde, owned by Cameron Morman, Glen Ullin, N.D.

In the tie-down roping, Myles Kenzy’s horse Hez A Smoothie “Butterball” won the Horse of the Year for the event.

The Breakaway Roping Horse of the Year went to Purr N IN The Sand, owned by Sam Jorgenson and ridden by Samantha Fulton, and the Barrel Racing Horse of the Year was awarded to Firewater French Fame, “Summer,” owned by Kevin and Summer Kosel.

The Badlands Circuit Finals Rodeo is the culmination of the regular season of rodeos, with the top twelve in each event qualifying by most money won. This year’s circuit finals rodeo was held in Minot, N.D. Oct. 10-12.

The 2026 rodeo will be Oct. 9-11.

For more information, visit the website at BadlandsCircuitFinalsRodeo.com

-Badlands Circuit Finals