Hunter Koch will ride the high callback in both heeling finals Saturday at the Old West World Championships, with both horses owned by X Performance Horses.

Koch marked 686.00 on three head on Rebel X in the Pre-Futurity Heeling on Wednesday in Amarillo, Texas, 5.03 points ahead of Joseph Harrison and Royal Nites. The 4-year-old sorrel stallion won Round 1 with 228.82, placed fifth in Round 2 with 226.66 and won Round 3 with 230.52, the highest score in either open heeling class through three rounds. The two round wins paid $4,000.

Two days earlier, Koch took the Futurity Heeling high callback on Rockk Star with 686.16. The two horses go into the finals 0.16 points apart.

Rebel X’s 5.03-point lead is the second-largest of the four open classes, behind Kiri’s 7.69 in the Pre-Futurity Heading.

Amarillo is Rebel X’s second shot at an Old West 4-&-Under heeling title this year. He and Koch won the 4-&-Under Heeling at Old West’s Gamble at Guthrie in April, and he has $75,094 in lifetime earnings going into this week.

McGuire bought him as a yearling at the Solo Select Sale, the same place he got Rockk Star.

“There was just something about him,” McGuire said. “The way he went around—he had a presence. He was my favorite horse in the whole sale.”

T.J. Good and Kameron Buchanan started him as a cutting prospect, and Good considered him his best prospect for the Western Bloodstock Sale at the NCHA Futurity before McGuire pulled him to rope on. Colton McCarley also put time on him as a 3-year-old. Early in that 3-year-old year he was a handful, once popping Koch out of the saddle on camera in the practice pen, before he turned all business in the show pen.

“He’s like a big kid at home,” Koch said. “But you back him in the box and he’s all business. You don’t find many that really love it, but he does. You can run 30 on him and he’s the same every time.”

Nine for Saturday

X Performance Horses, the program JD McGuire co-owns, has nine entries in Saturday’s finals: seven of the 40 spots in the open heeling short rounds, one in the Pre-Futurity Heading and one in the Futurity Heeling’s Intermediate and Limited finals.

Pre-Futurity Heeling

• Rebel X, Hunter Koch, 1st, 686.00
• Hide N Go Seek, Koch, 3rd, 679.65
• Rubys Stylish Cat, Paul Eaves, 4th, 678.20
• CSR Simply Hickory, Koch, 19th, 670.29

Futurity Heeling

• Rockk Star, Koch, 1st, 686.16
• Rubys Stylish Cat, Eaves, 9th, 676.63
• Hes A Rowdy Rebel, Koch, 13th, 672.42

Pre-Futurity Heading

• Time For Play, Kaleb Driggers, 6th, 675.29 (co-owned with Kingpin Genetics)

Futurity Heeling Intermediate and Limited

• Rocko, JD McGuire, 663.76; second callback in the Limited, 12th in the Intermediate

The program entered seven horses in the Pre-Futurity Heeling, and four made the short round. They won $7,000 of the $9,000 paid in the three rounds, all with Koch: Rebel X’s two round wins, Hide N Go Seek’s 228.8 to win Round 2 and CSR Simply Hickory’s 226.96 for second in Round 2.

X Performance brought nine horses to the Futurity Heeling. Hide N Go Seek missed that short round by 0.27 points, 21st with 668.54.

Rubys Stylish Cat, a 4-year-old gelding by Smooth Talkin Style, is the only horse in both open heeling finals.

Koch said the program splits the riding between him and McGuire.

“It’s just a good team effort by both of us. We both have the same goal and the same vision as far as, you know, what we want to do with our horses — make them go beyond just the futurity world,” Koch said Monday. “So, like, when I’m gone rodeoing, or, you know, going somewhere, JD takes them and gives them confidence and jackpots on them, ’cause JD rides really good, too, and they get good reps. And then they can get realistic reps from me, and we bounce back and forth. There’s a trailer coming from Stephenville and Midland every week.”

One horse away

McGuire said Monday that he’s betting the rope horse industry follows the path of the cutting, reining and cow horse markets.

“I think, you know, just the momentum that the industry has is crazy right now,” McGuire said. “I don’t think it’s going anywhere anytime soon, and if we just keep following kind of how the cutters have been going, and the reiners, and the cow horse guys, we’ve got a very steep upward trend, I feel like. It is a lot of gambling, for sure, but it’s worth it as much as you need to get just one horse like that.”

On Saturday, his program has two at the top of the heeling.

“You’re just one horse away from just changing your entire life, you know?” McGuire said. “You’re just one horse away from changing your whole life, you never really know. And I hate to just put it on a horse, but it really is a human deal, for sure.”

The papers

Rebel X is by Metallic Rebel, the 2012 red roan son of Metallic Cat, out of Flash About, by Purdy Boy Flash. High Brow Cat sired Metallic Cat and Pretty Boy Cat, the sire of Purdy Boy Flash, so he shows up on both sides. Smart Aristocrat sired Purdy Boy Flash’s dam, Purdy Aristocrat, and Smart Little Lena sired Rebel X’s second dam, Missuma. Flash About won $246,087 in the cutting and had produced more than $500,000 in earnings as of April.

Barker Ranch Cutting Horses LLC bred him. AQHA lists JD and Lindsey McGuire as his owners; Old West lists X Performance Horses.

Saturday

The Intermediate and Limited finals start at 8 a.m. The open finals start at 2 p.m. Old West estimates $20,056 for the Pre-Futurity Heeling winner and $20,240 for the Futurity Heeling winner.

Pedigree

REBEL X
METALLIC REBEL x FLASH ABOUT x PURDY BOY FLASH
Sorrel stallion, foaled 2022
Breeder: Barker Ranch Cutting Horses LLC
Owner: JD and Lindsey McGuire (AQHA record); entered as X Performance Horses
Earnings: $4,000 at the 2026 Old West World Championships, Pre-Futurity Heeling Rounds 1 and 3, as of Oct. 16. QData lifetime earnings TK.