Logan Medlin’s heel horse, Tongue River Ranch-bred 6-year-old TRR Freckles Holidoc, has some huge footwear to fill behind his two-time AQHA/PRCA Heel Horse of the Year Drago, however to date, he’s been a gamer.
“Cantina” made the brief spherical of the 2022 American Rope Horse Futurity Association World Championships Oct. 21, 2022, and simply two months later subbed in for Medlin’s well-known Nita Win Playboy on rodeo’s greatest stage. Along the way in which, he’s been one in all solely two heel horses to select up two go-round wins.
Medlin heels his Round 5-winning steer on 6-year-old Cantina. | Jamie Arviso Photo
“That was not an easy decision,” Medlin mentioned. “That horse is where I started. I owe everything to that horse. But he’s been a little bit sore this fall, and Dr. Dorris back in Stephenville with Stephenville Equine has done a great job of getting him to the point where i thought we could give him a go out here, and I rode him the first three nights. He wasn’t crippled or sore, but he just wasn’t him. It cost us some money a couple different times. It was hard to get off of him. It’s hard to get off of the horse that you’ve rode as much as I have him. I have full confidence in this 6-year-old I have, and I love the horse. He’s green, and he might make a mistake every now and then, but he’s electric and he makes things happen.”
This is the second horse to come back out of the American Rope Horse Futurity Association ranks to look on the Finals—with Cody Snow beginning the week on Bert McGill’s Play Sleeping the primary half of the week—however the first to indicate within the futurity and again into the field on the NFR in the identical yr.
“Thankfully, I took a step of faith and took him this summer and used him as a second horse,” Medlin mentioned. “It would have been really hard to get off Drago if I’d have left Cantina at home. I left a great horse at home that would have been rock solid as a second horse because I thought this one could be better. And so I took him and thankfully I rode him some this summer, but obviously nowhere where there were 18,000 people, but obviously this is something that’s been on my brain for the last three or four nights. But he handled it fine. The first night, I didn’t give him a fair chance. I rode him too much like a green horse. But in Round 5, I told myself if he messes up, fine, but I’m just going to ride him like a heel horse and we’ll see what happens.”
Medlin, with header Coleman Proctor, has picked up $77,543.02 on the 2022 NFR.
Medlin locations his loop behind his Round 8-winning steer on Cantina. | Jamie Arviso Photo
Origin Story
No surprises, although, that Cantina has been capable of step up. He’s by Pepcid, the Tongue River Ranch stallion who sired Tripp Townsend’s Riata Buckle champion heel horse, in addition to numerous winners within the cow horse area and within the ranch rodeo pen.
“About 18 years ago, we were looking for a Pepto horse,” Bubba Smith, Tongue River ranch supervisor, mentioned. “We were the first ranch out this way to try the Peptos as ranch horses. We looked all over for one, and we couldn’t find one that fit us. A trainer told me he knew of where there was a Pepto horse, in Canada. He was limited on showing, but the guy said he was good. We met the lady who had him in Wyoming and we brought him back here. Pepcid was a good horse from the start. He was ready to go show, but we chose not to show him because we turned all our studs out, and when you’re needing him and you’re out on mares, that makes it tough.”
Until simply final yr, Pepcid had all the time pasture bred the Tongue River mares. But with the huge curiosity from workforce ropers in his offspring, Pepcid went to stay on the 6666s to breed extra mares throughout breeding season.
“The ropers have figured him out,” Smith mentioned. “At the Riata Buckle, there were a ton of Pepcids. They’re so trainable, and they’re the smoothest traveling horses you’ll ever ride. Pepcids are real trainable. They’re smart, number one, but you don’t have to be the best hand in the world to make a good horse out of a Pepcid. But if you are a good hand, you’ve really got some exceptional horses. We ranch rodeo on them, and all the cowboys like riding them. We have a bunch of Pepcid mares and they’re producers. We’re crossing them on a little of everything.”
When Medlin purchased Cantina, the ranch was considering of utilizing him as a junior stallion. So he had already bred a handful of mares. But when the prospect got here for Medlin to personal him and present what he might actually do, it was time for him to be a gelding.
“That was because of Logan, because he’s a great young man,” Smith mentioned. “We want to get a horse out in the hands of people like that, because of his character, and that guy can rope.”