Three of the four champs on both ends of the 4-and-under and 6-and-under futurities during the ARHFA’s Sun Circuit event can claim nearly 10 NFR qualifications between them. They were joined in the winner’s circle by an Idaho-raised father of three with a day job.
Not long after winning the futurity at Jason Hershberger’s annual horse sale in Scottsdale on a consignment, Jason Warner, 45, was fourth callback in the ARHFA Heeling Pre-Futurity on his friend Rusty Rich’s 4-year-old mare Two Lottery Tickets. They made a clean run but Warner was given the option of a re-run. He didn’t know why. Turns out his helper, Tate Kirchenschlager, had collided with the flagger during the run.
“I didn’t know what my score would have been,” said Warner, who also shoes horses on the side and lives in Congress, Arizona. “I looked up in the stands at Rusty and he kind of shrugged his shoulders. When Joseph Harrison is high call, you know it’ll be tough. So, I thought, ‘No risk it, no biscuit!’ And we rode right back into the box for a re-run.”
That steer had more action. So, Warner, an 8.5 heeler, made an ever better run to put a 227 on the board. It held on for the win among all 4-year-olds against the likes of Trey Yates, Cade Rice and Billie Jack Saebens to earn Warner $9,945. It also landed him second among Intermediate heelers for $4,850, earning Warner a Westworld total $14,795, as well as the biggest training accolade of his life. Warner’s original run had scored a 223.
“She always wanted to be pretty darn good, from the get-go,” Warner said of Two Lottery Tickets (“Reba”). “She’s only 4 this year, so it’s hard to say how good she can get.”
It was literally Reba’s first trip to town.
“I didn’t know if she was going to leave the heeling box on that first steer,” Warner said, laughing. “When the gates cracked, I had to kick-start her. She got better, but she also got a little warm in the corner. During the short round, Tate bailed me out a little bit. I didn’t back her all the way in there because I didn’t want her to get hotter and do anything silly. I looked at Tate and he looked at me and cracked his nod off pretty fast.”
Reba is by Two Sunny, a stallion by the legendary Mr Sun Olena out of a double-bred Poco Bueno mare. On the bottom, she’s out of Nita Lottery—a daughter of Nita’s Wood out of a Dual Pep/Doc’s Hickory mare.
“My good heel horse is also by Two Sunny,” Warner said. “And Rusty heads on a horse raised by the Perkins family that’s the same age. We took those two 5-year-olds to Vegas and placed fourth in the 14.5 in 2022 to split $60,000.”
The Perkins Ranch in Tyler, Texas, has long been known for its foundation cowhorse breeding, and searched more than a decade to buy Mr Sun Olena, by the great cutter Doc Olena and out of a San Peppy mare.
“I bought Reba before she was weaned,” said Rich, who also trains his horses. “She looked the part when I saw her, and Jason and I both knew she was something special. I broke her to ride and handed her off to Jason as a 3-year-old. Don Perkins was my mentor and I really like those foundation lines from Mr Sun Olena and the Poco Tivios—it’s just good old stuff. Our stallion, Tha Rock, came from there and was actually AQHA High-Point Cutting Horse of the Year two years in a row.”
Raised in Rigby, Idaho, Warner is a first-generation team roper. He had an older brother that delved into it, so he did, too, and mostly had to train whatever horses he roped on. He has never trained horses for the public. Instead, he owns a rubberized flooring business, and met Rich when he put a floor in his trailer. They became friends, started roping together, and now Warner and his family spend summers at Rich’s stunning Utah property.
“Rusty and his wife Trista and the people that raised her were all there in Scottsdale, so that was pretty cool,” said Warner, whose daughter is a college breakaway roper and sons are Utah state high school champion team ropers.
