Dustin Bird and Ike Folsom Win Montana Circuit Again

Cut Bank Cowboy

Dustin Bird Picks Up PRCA Montana Circuit Title No. 11, While Ike Folsom Gets No. 3

Dustin Bird and Ike Folsom ran through 'em at the 2023 Montana Circuit Finals for a second-straight year.

Dustin Bird is once again both the Montana Circuit Finals Aggregate Champion and the circuit’s year-end champion, bringing along partner Ike Folsom for the win this year after finishing second in the 2022 season.

Bird, 43, of Cut Bank, Montana, now has 11 Montana Circuit titles, starting with the first heeling title he won in 2002 and including a tie-down roping title in 2011 and four all-around championships along the way, too.

Bird and his Dinero-bred head horse SP Toasted Hayday. | Clay Guardipee Photo

Folsom, 41, of Dillon, won his third title this year, having won it in 2013 and 2014.

The duo roped three steers in 14.6 seconds to win the MCFR aggregate, winning two go rounds in 4.6 and 4.5 along the way and winning fourth with a 5.5 in the last round. They won $9,855 a man for their weekend’s efforts, putting both men over the edge in the circuit title, too.

“This year was a ton of fun,” Bird, who’s roped at five NFRs, said. “Last year, we lost my mom from cancer two days after the circuit finals, so we were going back and forth every night, just praying she’d hold on and trying to focus on my roping at the same time. This year, I had so many good memories of her watching me rope that it was bittersweet, but I was able to enjoy it. My boys and my wife got to be here, and we had a great weekend. Things have definitely changed in the last 20-or-so years since my first circuit finals, but I’m still happy to be doing it.”

Is That Dustin Bird in 1883?

Bird stepped away from full-time ProRodeo in favor of fatherhood with his wife Alicia and boys Stockton, 7, and Sampson, 5. He and Folsom have fit in rodeos in between both men’s family and ranching responsibilities.

“We’ve always been buds and hung out,” Folsom said. “He was coming home to take care of their place, and that’s what I’ve always done. Our oldest boys are the same age, and they’re like brothers. They get along good, and we just have fun doing this.”

Ike Folsom and Anchor at the 2023 MCFR. | Clay Guardipee Photo

Montana Circuit Finals Championship Horsepower

Bird rode SP Toasted Hayday, a 2016 son of the Potters‘ famous PC Frenchman Hayday out of the Toast To Dash mare Toast Em Ceska, for the win. Folsom rode the same horse he’s heeled on for almost 15 years, a grandson of Smart Little Lena he calls Anchor.

Montana Circuit Finals Rodeo Team Roping Results

First round: 1. Dustin Bird/Ike Folsom, 4.6 seconds, $2,628 each; 2. Wheaton Williams/Bryan Lemmon, 5.0, $1,971; 3. Radley Day/Jared Bilby, 5.9, $1,314; 4. Shawn Bird/Zachary Schweigert, 6.0, $657.

Second round: 1. Dustin Bird/Ike Folsom, 4.5 seconds, $2,628 each; 2. (tie) Gunner Plenty/Mason Trollinger and Brady Tryan/Sid Sporer, 4.8, $1,643 each; 4. Shawn Bird/Zachary Schweigert, 5.5, $657.

Third round: 1. Gunner Plenty/Mason Trollinger, 4.4 seconds, $2,628 each; 2. Brady Tryan/Sid Sporer, 4.6, $1,971; 3. Ian Austiguy/Sam Levine, 4.9, $1,314; 4. Dustin Bird/Ike Folsom, 5.5, $657.

Average: 1. Dustin Bird/Ike Folsom, 14.6 seconds on three head, $3,942 each; 2. Radley Day/Jared Bilby, 20.7, $2,957; 3. Gunner Plenty/Mason Trollinger, 9.2 on two head, $1,971; 4. Brady Tryan/Sid Sporer, 9.4, $986.