Dashing Company, better known as “Ernie” and ridden by four-time NFR header Brenten Hall, was named the 2026 Nutrena Head Horse of the Year, presented by AQHA, following a tiebreaker vote against Lightning Aguilera’s Jess A Moose after the two horses initially tied for the award.

The award, voted on by the top 25 headers in the PRCA world standings, initially ended in a tie between the two horses. After the results were announced, a second vote was held to determine a single winner, with Ernie ultimately earning the title.

For Hall, the recognition means more than another accomplishment on a horse’s résumé. Ernie spent most of his life with Hall’s father-in-law, Guy Howell, who bought him off the racetrack as a 3-year-old and made him into the horse that helped Howell win the 2025 Badlands Circuit year-end heading title.

“I don’t know how I feel,” Hall said of the unusual voting process. “I mean, I’m happy that he won it. I feel it’s a little weird that when they originally come out, they were okay with just doing a tie and giving both horses the award. And I thought that was honestly pretty neat because I thought both these horses have been great.”

Despite the unusual process, Hall was grateful to see Ernie get the recognition.

“It was very cool that everybody did vote for Ernie, though, when it came time to re-vote,” Hall said. “It means a lot—It means a lot to have a good horse. It means a lot for him to be honored.”

A Family Horse

Long before Ernie carried Hall through the 2026 ProRodeo season, he was making a name for himself in the Badlands Circuit with Howell.

The 2015 black gelding is by Free Company and out of Dashing Ten, by Dash To Chivato, with Dash For Cash appearing on both sides of his pedigree, along with First Down Dash and Raise Your Glass.

Howell, of Belle Fourche, South Dakota, had previously bought and trained Ernie’s full brother, Deuce, off the racetrack. His daughter Shayla, now Hall’s wife, eventually took over riding Deuce before he went on to Brye Crites.

When Howell learned that another horse from the same family was available, he returned to the track to purchase Ernie. Ernie was around 3 at the time, and Howell spent the next several years putting him together.

In 2025, Howell and Logan Schliinz won the Badlands Circuit year-end titles with $27,758.31 apiece. Ernie was also named the circuit’s Team Roping Horse of the Year, adding another honor to a horse Howell had spent years making.

That winter, when temperatures started dropping in South Dakota, Howell offered Hall the opportunity to take Ernie south and ride him.

“Guy didn’t have anything to do with Ernie, and he just offered him to me and asked if I’d like to take him down there,” Hall said. “I had rode him a few times, but he’s one of those horses that feels a heck of a lot better roping on him, like rodeoing or just competing, than he does in the practice pen.”

Their story got off to a good start when Hall won the first jackpot he entered on Ernie, a New Year’s roping in Oklahoma. Still, getting comfortable at the winter rodeos took time.

“I got to ride him some this winter, and it took a little bit of time for us to really get clicking together,” Hall said. “I felt like by the spring, me and him were clicking really, really well and had figured each other out and knew what to ask from each other.”

By summer, Ernie had become Hall’s a-string man. When an opportunity arose that fall, Hall and Shayla purchased him from her parents.

For them, the Horse of the Year title brought recognition to years of work that started long before Ernie ever entered a ProRodeo arena with Hall.

“Guy’s had a lot of good horses,” Hall said. “Then for me, I had Time Bomb for years and when I was younger, I didn’t think as much of (the Horse of the Year thing). But now as I’m getting older, it means a lot for the horse to me.”

Hall said the timing of Ernie’s nomination made the honor even more special. Howell still owned the horse when Hall submitted him for consideration.

“I just wanted them to get recognized for all the hard work they’d done and then Ernie for being as good as he was,” Hall said. “It was really special for everybody involved, especially our family.”

Getting the Call Every Time

In an era when ProRodeo’s top headers may need to rely on multiple horses to handle the different conditions throughout the season, Hall found himself turning to Ernie nearly every time.

Hall thinks he rode Ernie for around 85% of his runs in 2026, turning to his other head horse, Lucky, when necessary.

“If he was there, he was getting the call,” Hall said. “It wasn’t one of those deals where I was trying to save him. I knew we needed to win pretty much all year, and we didn’t finish the course the way we should have, but I was definitely not going to waste time—I was trying to win on him.”

Ernie’s ability to handle different setups is one of the biggest reasons Hall believes he deserves the Horse of the Year title.

At Corpus Christi, Texas, where the cattle are close and the setup is fast, Hall and Wyatt Cox stopped the clock in 3.6 seconds to win the first round and $5,758 apiece. They finished third in the average with 14.5 seconds on two head for another $6,384 per man, bringing their earnings to $12,142 each.

For Hall, the 3.6-second run was an early indication that his partnership with Cox, and his decision to ride Ernie, were headed in the right direction.

“I felt like for a partnership, me and Wyatt starting at Corpus, our first run together, being 3.6 was one of those runs where you’re like, ‘Yeah, this is a good idea for both of us,'” Hall said.

On longer setups, like St. Paul, Oregon, Ernie was equally capable of running down cattle and putting Hall in position to make a competitive run.

Hall credits that versatility first to the way Ernie scores.

“I would say that the reason he’s very successful at both is one of the reasons, probably the same reason that Lightning rides his horse everywhere at the same time,” Hall said. “They both score really, really good. And when they score good, it just seems like everything else falls into place.”

Ernie is a big, powerful horse with the speed needed to compete outside, but Hall said he’s equally capable of shortening his stride and using his body when the setup calls for something quicker.

“He’s a big horse, but he’ll shorten up and use his body good,” Hall said.

It’s a combination Hall believes is increasingly difficult to find.

Horses built for shorter setups can sometimes be too tight for longer runs, while horses with the speed to excel outside don’t always have the ability needed to handle a small arena.

Hall compares the difference to athletes who specialize in different running distances.

“It’s kind of like a track athlete or somebody like that that’s really good at short-distance sprints or somebody that’s more of a longer runner, and usually don’t get that combined,” Hall said. “I think that’s what makes him so special and so rare is that you get a horse that can work in both setups.”

It’s a quality Hall had been missing since losing his longtime bay horse, Time Bomb, known as Timmy, who was also capable of working in nearly any setup.

“Ever since my bay horse died, I haven’t had a horse that I thought could do both,” Hall said. “Timmy (or Time Bomb) was good inside, good outside. And it’s taken me until Ernie that I felt like I had one that was good inside and outside.”

Although Hall fell short of qualifying for the 2026 NFR, he had no doubts about what horse he would have ridden in Las Vegas.

“Lord willing, if I’d have made the finals, there’s nothing else I would’ve rode besides Ernie.”

Built for the Road

Ernie’s ability inside the arena is only part of what makes him valuable to Hall. A horse that competes at the highest level also has to withstand the travel that comes with chasing a trip to the Thomas and Mack.

Hall describes Ernie as a durable horse with good bone and structure, but says his mind might be just as important as any of his physical attributes.

When Ernie first came south, Howell warned Hall that the horse didn’t eat much while riding in the trailer. He was accustomed to the shorter trips of circuit rodeoing, where feed and rest were generally never too far away.

It didn’t take long for Ernie to adjust to the longer hauls.

“When the time came, it did not take him long to figure out that whenever something gets put in front of you, you might be in the trailer for 10 or 12 hours, and there is no sense in waiting,” Hall said. “You better eat while you get a chance.”

Ernie also proved he didn’t need a buddy with him to stay comfortable on the road. Early in the summer, Hall and Shayla traveled with only Ernie in the trailer, and the gelding handled it without trouble.

“He’s just quiet. He’s pretty reserved, pretty confident,” Hall said.

Hall remembers entering Ernie twice at that first Oklahoma jackpot, a five-head open. After several runs, when many horses would have been anticipating the next steer, Ernie was content with the task at hand.

“He’s just got a special mind,” Hall said. “He doesn’t ever get too worked up.”

For Hall, it’s that composure, paired with Ernie’s athleticism, that makes him so dependable regardless of the situation.

Letting Ernie Do His Job

Although Hall and Cox didn’t finish the 2026 season where they hoped in the world standings, Ernie gave Hall plenty of opportunities to remember.

At Canby, Oregon, Hall and Cox won the first round with a run Hall remembers not because of anything extraordinary he had to do, but because of how little he had to do.

“My favorite runs probably aren’t as cool as the younger kids’ favorite runs where they reach and throw their whole rope,” Hall said. “My favorite runs are when I get a great start and I don’t have to do anything crazy.”

At Canby, everything fell into place.

“We won the first round at Canby, and I just got a good start and went to the steer and turned him and just let Ernie do all the work for me, just kind of stayed out of his way.”

St. Paul was another standout, where Hall and Cox won the average after a second-round run that exceeded their expectations.

“St. Paul, winning St. Paul this year, the second round over there was a really cool run because we didn’t plan on trying to win it,” Hall said. “We were just making the best run we could and ended up winning better in the round than we thought we would and winning the average.”

Hall also pointed to Driggs, Idaho, as another memorable stop, but the Canby run remains one of his favorites because of how simple Ernie made the job.

After years of Howell developing and competing on him, Ernie proved himself capable of stepping into Hall’s program and handling the demands of a full ProRodeo season. The Horse of the Year award gives both families something to show for their time with the gelding.

And while Hall would have liked to finish the season with another trip to the NFR, having his peers recognize Ernie as the best head horse in the business is an accomplishment of its own.

“It’s really special that he came from Shayla’s dad and that he bought him off the track and trained him, raised him, had him several years,” Hall said. “So he’s a great horse.”