Two of the most acclaimed futurity horses to date—X My Ich piloted by Dakota Kirchenschlager and Juiced Up Cat piloted by Wesley Thorp—will sell at The Horse Sale at Rancho Rio March 11, 2022, marking the first time horses of this caliber have been offered to the public in one place.
“Giving the general public access to horses of this caliber is what we’ve always worked towards at Yost Events,” said Kari deCastro, marketing manager for The Horse Sale at Rancho Rio. “It’s really an honor that the owners have the faith in what we do here at Rancho Rio to consign their best horses for our customers. There’s nowhere better to rope all winter long, and there’s nowhere better to find the types of horses you need to be successful on.”
The Horse Sale at Rancho Rio Info
WHEN: March 11 (Cocktails at 4 p.m., with sale at 5 p.m.)
WHERE: Rancho Rio, Wickenburg, Arizona
DURING: The NTR National Finals
ONLINE: LiveAuctions.tv, powered by Superior Livestock Productions
X My Ich
Owned by Darren and Tara Johnson, X My Ich won the 2020 ARHFA Heading World Championship as a 4-year-old with a score of 918.57, worth $35,000.
The horse had his start with National Cutting Horse Association Million-Dollar Rider TJ Good as a cutter, but he got a little big—15 hands and 1,250 pounds—for that arena.
“They said he was real gritty, and that fits me pretty good,” Johnson, a rancher from Happy, Texas, said. “He had a good stop to him. I just started throwing cattle to water on him and doctoring wheat cattle on him for a year. Dakota took him the summer of his 4-year-old year and got him working exceptionally well in the heading, and he showed outstanding to win the world title in Fort Worth.”
Since then, the horse has picked up tens of thousands in Ariat World Series of Team Roping and non-pro futurity earnings with Johnson, and he’s set for Rancho Rio.
“Being able to offer ‘Bugatti’ at this sale is an exciting opportunity for our program,” Johnson said. “We are constantly pushing for great horses that we can showcase, and putting him in front of the customers in the business is an honor we don’t take lightly. He’s the kind of horse that anyone would be blessed to haul.”
Juiced Up Cat
World Champion Heeler Wesley Thorp set the futurity world on fire with Juiced Up Cat, the then-6-year-old chestnut gelding he won the 2020 ARHFA World Championship aboard.
“I got him at the start of his 6-year-old year, and he was a really smart horse. I took him right off the bat to some local ropings and started using him and winning on him. I kept pushing him more and more, planning to take him to the futurity. Along the way, he kept getting better. I took him to some amateur and circuit rodeos, and rode him at one Open roping a week. Then he was so good at the futurity and won that.”
At the futurity, Thorp and Juice garnered 933.84 points and took home the win at high call, worth $20,000 plus another $7,000 he banked in the go-rounds.
Thorp started jackpotting on “Juice” in the winter of 2021, riding him at the California rodeos then sending him as a rodeo horse with Brock Hanson and Hunter Koch.
“He’s smooth, he holds good position and has a nice stop,” Thorp said. “He’s got great spacing the whole run, and that’s what sets him apart. He’s got the ability to just hold his spacing and make the run so smooth—you can throw at any time. He’d fit any level of roper and he’s been hauled everywhere.” TRJ
