Team Roping Nation’s been cheering hard for the team out there tearing up the trail with the most mileage under their belts: Manny Egusquiza is 48, and his two-time World Champion Heeler Walt Woodard is 69.
That’s 117 years between them, when the average world-class team consists of close to half that. At 19, the quarterback’s head horse, Tyes Sleeping Star—they call him Sleepy—is no spring chicken futurity horse himself. But if you hit snooze when these guys run one, you might wake up choking on their dust.
Egusquiza and Woodard jumped out and showed us all what they’re still made of in the early going of 2025, with a fifth-place showing at the BFI and second at the San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo. All the big dogs were there, and these two talented veterans won the short round in 4.5. With 14.1 on three steers, they finished only one tenth of a second behind 2025 San Angelo champs Kolton Schmidt and Will Woodfin in the average.
It wasn’t Sleepy’s first San Angelo short round. He has, in fact, been there and done it with previous owner Ivy Hurst in the barrel racing before.
“Bubba Buckaloo started Sleepy when he was young,” Manny said. “Then (team roper) Clay and Ivy Hurst owned him. Then Belo Wiley and his son, Chase, did. I bought Sleepy from Belo and Chase.
“I’ve had Sleepy since 2020. Belo and Chase sent him and a couple other horses to me to sell for them, and the more I rode Sleepy, the more I knew I could get some good use out of him. But I didn’t own Sleepy until after I won the BFI on him.”
Yes, Manny’s career highlight—winning the 2021 BFI with Kory Koontz—had a lot to do with Sleepy helping him set up six runs for Dawg in that massive Lazy E Arena.
“Sleepy’s just so easy,” Manny said. “He scores easy, rates off my throw and doesn’t overrun the steer. I’m not saying he’s fast fast, but he does everything correct. The first time I rode him at the BFI, I won it. The next year, in 2022, Kory and I were winning it on three and had a hiccup on the fourth one. In 2023, I placed in a round on him there, and in 2024 I was in the top five or six in the roping with Evan Arnold on four, then broke the barrier on our fifth steer.
“That was all on Sleepy, then this year Walt and I won fifth with me riding him at the BFI. There’s something about this horse and that roping.”
The BFI win comes with great prestige and financial gain. Manny’s side of that year’s champion’s check was $75,000.
“I watched the BFI while growing up in Hialeah, Florida,” said Manny, who’s currently building a place in Huckabay, Texas. “My dad was a day worker who trained horses in South Florida. I always got the 10th round of the NFR on VHS tapes, then as I got a little older, my dad would get all of the calf roping and all of the team roping, so we could watch it. One year, we got the package with all the events. We watched the BFI, George Strait and Tubac roping tapes, but you didn’t see any of that stuff in person growing up in South Florida.
“Kory Koontz was my all-time hero. To get to rope with him at the BFI—and win it—was above and beyond anything I could have imagined. That’s going to be a day that roping-wise is hard to replace. I’ve had some good horses in my career, but there’s a grit about this horse that most don’t have. By the third steer at the BFI, he’s better than he was on the first one. By the short round, he’s just like, ‘Put me in, I’ll make it happen.’”
In case you’re wondering, yes, Manny is Dustin Egusquiza’s brother. Their dad, Manny Sr., died when Dustin was only 16, so Manny’s been a big brother and more.
Back to Sleepy, Manny did know he had a second event up his sleeve before he bought him.
“I knew he’d run barrels, but didn’t pay much attention to his barrel racing skills, because I didn’t have any use for them,” he grinned. “My stepdaughter, Whitley, runs him at the playdays now, and he hasn’t forgotten how to do it. Sleepy’s so gentle that a little girl can jump on him in his pen with no halter, and he’ll walk around until she quits kicking. As for the heading, Bubba did a very good job with him.”
This is Manny and Walt’s second run at it.
“I roped with Walt in 2022, then JC Flake in 2023 and Evan Arnold in 2024,” said Manny, who before that headed some for Walt’s son, Travis, in 2015 when Travis made the Finals. “I wasn’t going to rodeo this year, because we’re building our place and I had everything turned out.
“Then Walt, who lives two and a half miles down the road, said he didn’t have a partner. So I got my horses back in shape, and started going down there to practice. The BFI was our first roping together this year.
“The work ethic and dedication Walt has is something to pay attention to. Walt craves it, and he’s really lit a fire in me again. We have a chance. We can do this, and Walt and I both feel that way. And when I feel like I have a chance, I get really excited about roping.”
This 15.1-hand, 1,200-pound black horse also pumps him up.
“Sleepy’s the reason I’m still entering,” Manny said. “It doesn’t matter what I put him up against, he pulls through. I can be 3.8 on him at a rodeo (like Liberty Hill, Texas in May), and do good on him at the BFI. What else is there to say about a horse?
“Sleepy’s good everywhere, and he’s been spot-on everywhere I take him. I didn’t really rodeo on him a lot until this year, because he was so good at the jackpots and I didn’t want to overload him. But this year, I backed him off at the jackpots, because he’s 19 and I’m taking him to the rodeos.”
Don’t underestimate how long the road has been from South Florida to where Manny is today.
“Where I grew up, I didn’t think it would ever be possible to even rope at the BFI, much less win it,” he said. “And I’ve been fortunate enough to win fourth at the George Strait heading and heeling. To do those things coming from where I grew up is a dream.
“My mom (Maria) says when I was 6 or 7, I told them I was going to move to Texas and rope for a living. Mom never told me I couldn’t do it. Dad was more of a realist, and used to say, ‘OK, but how are you going to do it?’”
Both Egusquiza brothers have willed successful roping careers into existence with work ethic and sweat equity. Sleepy, who has a little knot from long-ago surgery on his left knee, but travels sound, has a very similar can-do attitude.
“Walt’s chomping at the bit, and so am I,” Manny said. “We’re entered up this summer. This is Sleepy’s last dance. He’s 19, and he doesn’t owe me anything. So whatever he gives me this year, I’m going to let it lay where it lays. I have enough young horses coming along that I don’t think it’s my last dance. But it’s probably Sleepy’s.”
—TRJ—
