Brett Buss and Joey Romo roped four steers in 28.2 seconds to walk away average champions at the 2025 Maple Leaf Circuit Finals, held Nov. 26–29 in Regina, Saskatchewan, good for a $2,560.80 payday a man.
“It didn’t really click until we got the buckles,” Romo said of when the moment the win became a reality. “It was weird. And that was the thing me and Brett joked about, who would have ever thought we won an average during the year?”
Buss, 36, of Ponoka, Alberta, and Romo, 40, an Arizona native before marrying and moving to Nanton, Alberta, started out on the road together midway through the 2024 season.
“Our game plan is usually to go as fast as we can within reason and make the best run we can,” Buss said.
That plan was quickly put into action when the flag dropped on their 6.9-second Round 1 run, good for $1,280.40 a man. After a softer first round, Buss being off the barrier wasn’t detrimental.
“It just seemed like the first round, lots of them were hesitating on the start, so it just made it tricky,” Buss said of the steers. “Once I missed the barrier, I just wanted to catch that one and see where we ended up.”
Round 2 was a different story. Their 10.5-second run with a leg wasn’t ideal, but it set them up to do what they had wanted to from the jump.
“In that place, as a heeler you have to throw faster or you’re in a lot of trouble,” Romo said of the hockey rink they were roping in. “I just roped the outside leg. And then it’s like, well, now we have to go fast. That’s what we wanted to do anyway.”
“He was just really wide-hopping and kind of drifted down the arena and got away from Joey,” Buss added.
They rebounded in Round 3 with another 5.5-second run, placing fourth and picking up $426.80 a man, with the goal being keeping the steer straight and not forcing anything in the narrow setup.
“Our same plan was just let him go straight,” Buss said. “I got a good roll at him and Joey does what he does and got around the end of it and heeled him.”
“Brett really used his head on the first three,” Romo bragged on his header. “If he was off of it just a hair or if it didn’t feel just right, he took one more and set it up so I could catch him fast.”
Heading into the last round, Buss and Romo were one of only a handful of teams with three steers caught. Their 5.3-second run in Round 4 may not have won anything, but when the teams in front of them had trouble, it was enough to seal the deal.
“If we did catch that cow, which we did, we were guaranteed no worse than second,” Buss said. “So it was kind of just, we know our steer goes left, let’s go make the best run we can and not beat ourselves.”
Romo said the realization came only after the round was over.
“And then it was like, holy cow, I think we just won the average,” he said.
As far as horsepower is concerned, Buss was on an 11-year-old bay Streak of Fling gelding he calls “Rango,” registered as Crime Streak, who started his life out as a barrel horse prospect.
“His mom is a Crime Wave mare that was actually an NFR barrel horse with Tracy McDonald quite a few years ago,” Buss said. “He wasn’t wanting to be a barrel horse so I ended up taking him; now he’s been a full-time head horse since I bought him when he was six.”
On the heel side, it was a little horse Romo calls “Preacher” that got the call.
“I got him from a friend in Arizona when he was five,” he said of the 13-year-old gelding. “I actually threw him to the wolves and started rodeoing and jackpotting on him. Then it only took me about, I don’t know, seven or eight years to finally get him screwed and feeling good.”
