Logan Allen and Ketch Kelton paired up to win $149,500 in the 2025 Riata #14.5 Championship, marking a major milestone in Allen’s rope horse training career while adding another title to Kelton’s growing legacy inside the Lazy E Arena.
Allen and Kelton roped four steers in 29.33 seconds Sept. 25, to take the win and the 6-&-Under Incentive for another $8,000 apiece. Iowa’s Allen was aboard I Got Dibs Doc, a 2020 stallion by Aint Seen Nothin Yet out of MS Docs Poco Leo Bar and owned by Lisa Johnson. On the heel side, the reigning and youngest Cinch Timed Event champion rode Shane Decker’s Pretty Poco Girl Fja, a 2021 mare by Cat Man Do out of Pretty Poco Boots.
I Got Dibs Doc is early in his career but off to a winning start. After having success on the stud’s full brother, also raised by Johnson, Allen received I Got Dibs Doc to train. After a local jackpot, Allen made the decision to enter him in the August Royal Crown Futurity in Rapid City, South Dakota. That Limited Heading win was their first together and kicked off a string of success that hasn’t let up.
Unofficial Riata Championship Results
“That was the first place big I took him, and then I broke him out over Labor Day at the rodeos, like Dayton (Iowa),” Allen, 38, explained. “I won second at Dayton on him, and then I placed at Fort Madison (Iowa) on him. And the horse I rode at Colorado Springs (at the NFR Open) is his full brother. I had placed on that one here and there, and he’s only 4 so I was just giving him a break. I was like, I think this yellow would be able to do it. So I rode him at them rodeos because he so good.”
I Got Dibs Doc also saw some Riata Pro Futurity action earlier in the day in the hands of Kelton. Allen and Kelton first got connected by two-time PRCA World Champion Paul Eaves after he had the young phenom help Allen in Rapid City. As for Kelton and Pretty Poco Girl Fja? The Riata #14.5 Championship was their first date.
The mare is new to Eaves’ program, so Kelton had never swung a leg over her before. At the start of the roping, Kelton was under the impression he was entered on a gray stallion Eaves is training, and was surprised, to say the least, when he saw a different name under his.
“I knew zero about her,” Kelton, 19, said with a laugh. “I figured it out because I was looking at Global Handicaps when it started. I didn’t even know [the mare]. I just knew I was supposed to ride the stud, and it was two different names. So I called Paul and said, ‘Hey, what am I riding right here?’ He’s like, ‘the stud.’ I said, ‘Well, it doesn’t have him listed.’ And then he’s like, ‘Well, I guess you’re riding the mare.’ Well, I could have run some on her the other day. Thanks a lot, Paul. I had never rode her before. Never, nothing. I practiced on the stud because that’s what I thought I was riding.”
Allen was also under the impression Kelton would be riding the stud, so when they took top honors at high call after the third round, he wasn’t sure what to expect at first.
“I was like, this has got to be bad,” Allen added. “I don’t know what happens if you ride the wrong horse, but I think we just ran three steers on the wrong horse, and we’re high call. Paul’s like, ‘No, he’s supposed to be on the mare.’ I’m like, ‘You told me when we entered to put the stud down?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know how that happened, but he caught it. He’s supposed to be on the mare.'”
Kelton and Pretty Poco Girl Fja evidently fit well, sealing the deal on the #14.5 win with a 6.90-second run. The Arizona kid is just getting his feet wet in the rope horse futurity side of the industry, an opportunity that arose once he started frequenting Eaves’ place over the summer.
“JD McGuire, when Hunter (Koch) left to go rodeo, he called Paul to see if he could ride his horses because Paul stayed home,” Kelton said. “And then I’d been going to Paul’s roping and he’s like, ‘Well, come on, you can just come help me at all these futurities.’ And then it just kind of went from there. I went and helped Paul, and now I’ve helped Logan, then I helped Kollin (VonAhn) and Joseph (Harrison).”
Allen, on the other hand, got started roughly three years ago with his first outing at the Riata. Over the years, Allen made a name for himself as a saddle bronc rider, a career that featured 14 trips to the Great Lakes Circuit Finals, but he’s always team roped. Deciding to retire from the roughstock end of the arena, Allen decided to go all in on the rope horse industry.
“I guess if I’m doing it, I kind of want to go big,” Allen said with a smile. “I want to win all I can, and I’ve always rode young horses. Even when I was riding broncs, I was always the guy that would go to the roping and have something kind of green. I probably always got ’em going and somebody would buy ’em half finished or just about finished, and I mean, that’s kind of what the futurities are. So, it just played right into my hand.”
