Billie Jack Saebens won first and second in the 2025 Royal Crown 4 & Under Heeling for over $25,000 with 2021 stallion Emojii taking top honors in Buckeye, Arizona.
Saebens had three horses come back in the Top 5 on Feb. 6, headlined by Emojii, sired by Hashtags out of CR Tuff Lucinderella by Woody Be Tuff, finishing first in the average and pocketing a total of $14,908. Southern Ranches’ Halle Berry, a 2021 mare by Metallic Cat out of One Sparking Time by One Time Pepto, finished second for an overall $10,925. DF Legends Pridenjoy, owned by Brad and Alden Harris and sired by Stevie Rey Von out of Gunna Be a Legend by Little Lenas Legend, rounded out Saebens herd at sixth place.
“Starting off the year with 4-year-olds, it’s a good feeling because as far as heel horses go, I just have one horse that’s a 5-year-old,” Saebens, 35, said. “Everything else aged out, so it’s kind of like starting over. It just seems promising. We’re starting the year off again, the work that’s been put in is paying off and it’s just exciting.”
Owned by High Country Services, LLC., Emojii started the day with the Round 1 with a 150.24 for $1,500, followed by a 150.69 in Round 2. They took top honors for another $1,500 in Round 3 with a 150.16 to secure their spot in the short round at high call. A 151.10 in the short round sealed the deal on the $10,170 average win with a 602.19 over four rounds with Brock Hanson’s help on the head side. Saebens and Emojii also picked up $1,216 for sire Hashtag’s owner Hashtags Ventures LP and $522 for breeder J H Nail Ranch.
“He did everything pretty darn good,” Saebens, a two-time NFR heeler, said. “There was one steer that was a little bit fresher feeling, ran a little bit harder and hit a little harder to turn, and he felt a little tight on him. But same thing I’ve said about a lot of horses, especially when I was rodeoing, I feel like he made a mistake, but even when he made a mistake, he allowed me to catch; one mistake didn’t lead to two, and that is a quality of a great horse.”
Emojii joined Saebens’ program at the start of December in 2024. The J H Nail Ranch bred stallion came from four-time NFR qualifier and now cutting horse trainer Jojo Lemond as a trained heel horse, allowing Saebens to put his spin on him.
“For that particular horse, I’m just kind of forgiving,” Saebens said. “He wants to stop a lot and to really measure the cow, and I just try to just make him easy to catch on, try to keep his shoulders up and then hooked onto the cow and follow them through there.”
While the approach is always horse-by-horse and show-by-show, Seabens tried to make no mistakes and kept in mind that they’re all still babies in their 4-year-old year.
“Today, especially, I was just going for no mistakes,” Saebens explained. “I wasn’t really trying to show my horse. I was going for 12 two footers; that’s really all I was thinking about. I went over to Rhen Richard’s this last week, and it was something that I think we all know but we get away from, and he asked me, ‘How many times have you been to a show and made zero mistakes and didn’t win anything?’ And I was like, ‘Never.’ So that was my goal today, just 12 two footers and don’t make any mistakes. And I felt like I had my horses prepared to do that.”
As for Emojii’s future, Saebens aims for continued success but also that the 4-year-old turns into a solid heel horse for his owners.
“I am pretty big on this, I’m looking down the road,” Saebens said. “This horse, I want to win as much as I can at the futurities, but my hopes is when he’s 7, the owner has a really nice jackpot horse that he can go win on. That’s my goal. That’s what I’m after, and hopefully we keep winning these things along the way, but that’s the ultimate goal. That’s kind of what keeps the wheels rolling for this whole deal, I feel like.”
