Back-to-Back: Harrison Wins Second-Consecutive ARHFA World Heeling Title, This Time Aboard Dual Axle

Joseph Harrison won the American Rope Horse Association’s Heeling World Championship October 18, 2019, in Fort Worth, Texas’ John Justin Arena, this time aboard a 5-year-old stallion named Dual Axle. 

Harrison won the event in 2018 aboard Dual Patron, who he also showed this year. But a no-time took Harrison and the returning champ out of contention in the second round. 

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Dual Axle—a sorrel by the Dual Rey son Dual R Smokin and out of CDS Modern Millie and owned by Denice Bledsoe—won $20,000 for his composite score of 927.98, a combination of judges’ scores and his times on four head. In a tough short round, Dual Axle scored second in the round behind Harrison’s second-place horse overall—CSR Dual Boonlite’s 235.87. For second, Bobby Lewis’ CSR Dual Boonlite’s 925.1 won $18,000. 

“Bobby picks them so good,” Harrison said of Dual Axle, who Lewis bought at a sale as a yearling then sold to the Bledsoes, who kept him in training. “We raise 90 percent of the ones we ride. But when he buys one, at an auction, he ain’t playing. He ain’t sitting over there with his book and he ain’t messing around. When he buys one, it’s like this. There’s a reason, there’s a point to it. Therefore, I get to ride a lot of good young horses.”

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“He was just an outstanding individual as a yearling,” Lewis added. “His comformation was outstanding, and I liked the way he was bred. He had that look about him, and he looked like he had a lot of potential. And he did.”

Lewis showed the stud in the cow horse and even has him qualified for this year’s AQHA World Show in the heading, heeling and cow horse.

“Fortunately, he’s nice and sound and a hard knocker with all the parts. We had some good friends of ours purchase him a while back and let us keep showing him,” Lewis said.

In the futurity, Harrison had the help of his 2019 NFR partner Chad Masters all day, who shouldered the lion’s share of the heading runs all day. While Masters cycled through young horses throughout the three qualifying rounds, he hopped on his AQHA/PRCA Horse of the Year Madison Oak—known as Clint—for the short round. 

“That horse is strong,” Harrison said. “He scores every time and he runs hard and he does his job. Chad’s the best guy for the job.”

Dual Axle has limited mares booked to him for 2020, with a $1,000 introductory rate for his first season in Lewis’s breeding barn. 

In the heeling, MS Marlboro Cat and JD Wing won the Limited Open worth $8,500, while Trey Yates and Halrey won the 4-year-old incentive. Special Highbrow and Trey Yates won the DT Horses Incentive for another $12,500, followed by DT Dun Snickerdoodle and Coel Davison for $7,500 and Swiss Sweet and Shay Carroll for $5,000. TRJ

Full Heeling Results: