Dakota Kirchenschlager and Gun Shyy marked the high score of either final Thursday night, a 309.84, to win the Solo Select Futurity heeling and $47,654 at Circle T Arena in Hamilton, Texas.
The bay mare opened the week by winning the first round with a 304.89 for $2,500. She was second on two head, then a 295.63 in the third round dropped her to sixth in the three-head aggregate.
The clean-slate final erased all of that. Gun Shyy beat second-place Billie Jack Saebens and Metallics Ace by 2.57 points for the title.
“She’s just a special horse,” Kirchenschlager said. “She’s a great-minded horse. I would say, if anything, she shows up every time so good that all the pressure’s usually on me. I mean, it’s not really ever been her fault. She’s starting to peak right at the right time. I feel like her best runs are starting to happen pretty frequently now.”
The Box
Asked what the judges liked, Kirchenschlager started before the gate opened.
“She just has a great presence, and she’s so good in the box. Like, she sets the whole scene by how good she is in the box,” Kirchenschlager said. “If they are great in the box, and you know it, and you can sit there for four or five extra seconds compared to horses that are not good in the box, it gets the judges on the edge of their seat before the gate’s even open. If they see you in there trying to squeak by, they all rode horses, and they know, and when they see that, it gives them a bad taste already. That horse stands there so good, then it just already gets them on your side.”
The mare hadn’t won a dime yet in the futurities—something Kirchenschlager said is all on him.
“She’s always shows great, and I have messed up tremendously on her for her to have huge success,” Kirchenschlager said. “She shows up every time so good that… all the pressure’s usually on me. I mean, it’s not really ever been her fault. She’s starting to peak right at the right time. I feel like her best runs are starting to happen pretty frequently now.”
Doing It Again
Kirchenschlager got the mare last summer as a 3-year-old. TNT Performance Horses of Whitesboro, Texas, owns her. TNT also owned Mayhemm, an earlier futurity horse Kirchenschlager rode, who aged out last year and was sold.
“After we sold him, I just asked him, I said, ‘You want to do it again?'” Kirchenschlager said. “And he said, ‘Yeah, I want to do it again. Just make sure it’s something good.’ And I said, ‘OK.’ And I told him about this horse, and he said, ‘Well, you know, my one rule, a mare is never coming to my house.’ I said, ‘I’m pretty sure you won’t have to worry about that.'”
Kirchenschlager said he hopes to keep riding her through her 6-year-old year, the way he did with Mayhemm, unless someone makes a big enough offer. He also said his wife and daughter have taken to the mare, and she’s easy to fall in love with.
Weathering the Storm
Kirchenschlager said the futurity game has changed underneath him.
“There’s a lot of new people who came into this, and it’s changed drastically, and I’ve had to change my style drastically,” he said. “I still do some of my things that got me to where I’ve come from, but I also have listened to podcasts. I have watched videos. I have asked the questions, I have beat my head against the wall. Why are these other guys humiliating me, and what am I not doing that they are doing? And it’s been a whirlwind, but I feel like it’s made me a better horse person, a better person, all the way around, because you gotta be able to look yourself in the mirror and be like, hey, this isn’t good enough. And you gotta figure out how to get better.”
He has worked most on riding the turn and getting closer to the steer before he throws, the way heelers like Hunter Koch, Paul Eaves and Trevor Brazile do. He said Gun Shyy covers for him when he doesn’t.
“That horse specifically, she stopped so hard that even if I don’t get as close as I need to be, like the judges want, she finishes so good that I can get away with it,” Kirchenschlager said.
The Old West’s World Championships are just two weeks away in Amarillo.
“I’m sure I’ll mess it all up 10 days from now at the next one,” Kirchenschlager said, “but I’ll be there banging it out again.”
Kirchenschlager’s Week
Gun Shyy, Heeling Round 1, 1st: $2,500
Gun Shyy, Heeling Open, 1st: $47,654
Total: $50,154
The Money-Earner
GUN SHYY: $50,154
SPOOKS GOTTA WHIZ x LIL GUN AFFAIR x LIL JOE CASH
2022 bay mare
Breeder: Loren Booth Living Trust
Owner: TNT Performance Horses
Heeling · Rounds 304.89 / 299.14 / 295.63 · Final 309.84 · Round 1 1st $2,500 + Open 1st $47,654