Aaron Tsinigine and Jeremy Buhler took home $17,410 a man and the famous Reno Rodeo spurs June 29, 2025, a third time for Tsinigine and a first for Buhler.
For 2015 World Champion Tsinigine, the win moves him to No. 11 in the PRCA world standings with $50,116.80. Despite already having two Reno titles under his belt (Tsinigine won the Reno Rodeo in 2018 with Trey Yates and again in 2022 with Kyle Lockett), the nerves were high because of what he wanted to prove.
“I usually don’t get nervous in the short round, but this time around, I think this is the most pressure I’ve ever had there,” Tsinigine, 38, said. “Because I had Buhler behind me, I knew he wasn’t going to mess up, and you can spend all the time you want being prepared and you can think you’re prepared, but when you get a heeler like that, or like Jade Corkill, you are walking into a whole new ball game. And that’s what I’ve really worked on myself was my way back to where I can be competitive. I think I’ve been a Top 20, Top 25 header for the past three or four years, and so I wanted to be a competitive header again.”
Buhler jumped to No. 20 in the world with $36,558.73, and the 2016 world champion is proud to add the famous silver spurs to his mantel.
“Oh, they’re awesome, they’re amazing,” Buhler, 37, said. “It’s right up there. Anytime you get a chance to win a rodeo with tradition, those are the ones when I’m an old man or when I’m long and gone, hopefully my kids’ kids look at it and they can be up on the shelf. To me, that stuff’s cool.”
Reno Rodeo breakdown
After winning over $151,000 at the ARHFA Old West Rope Horse Futurity, Buhler was ready to enter some rodeos to give his futurity stars some well-earned time off. As fate would have it, Tsinigine was in need of a partner for the next few weeks. Both keen with the idea of hitting what they could and the bucket list rodeos, they partnered up.
“Honestly, if you’re not all in the way that you need to be and you’re kind of doing the futurity deal, it’s hard to have a high-level partner like Aaron that’s interested in doing that,” Buhler said. “I didn’t go to a single rodeo for two months before the Old West futurity because I wanted to be practiced up and ready for that. Well, it’s hard to find a partner that’s willing to do that. But Aaron’s pretty laid back and he’s like, ‘Well, let’s go to what we can go to, and you can take care of your futurity horses too.'”
Tsinigine and Buhler got things rolling June 26, in the The Biggest Little City in the World with a 4.7 to split Round 1 for $6,242 a man. They came back that evening in the performance with a 4.8 to put them in the driver’s seat heading into the short round.
As the short round fell apart, Tsinigine and Buhler were given even more of a cushion. Feeling like he’s better with his back against the wall, however, that wiggle room can be a blessing and curse in Tsinigine’s mind, so he focused on a clean start.
“I’ve been in that situation before where I’m like, OK, I’ve been in this situation, I know exactly what I need to do,” Tsinigine said. “I know what I’m going to do. I knew exactly what I was going to do before I rode in, and I wasn’t getting in the way of that. I knew we had to be 7.8 or 7.9, so I’ve run enough steers in that arena, I knew how far I could run that steer down. I guess that’s part of being a veteran.”
Their 6.7-second run sealed the deal on the aggregate for $10,016 apiece and $1,152 for round money. Tsinigine was in his home away from home, turning heads qualifying for the Reno Rodeo short round high call for the sixth time in nine years.
“When my rodeo career started, besides the $100,000 me and Clay O (‘Brien Cooper) won in 2013 in Oklahoma City, that was kind of the next big win for me,” Tsinigine explained. “In 2014, I just started roping with (Ryan) Motes; we had literally just started at the week before at Santa Fe. We went down to Reno and won second at the BFI, I think we won maybe $80,000 or $90,000 there. Then the next year we went back over there and we won second again for $80,000 or $90,000. We were high team at Reno that year and we didn’t win it, but we still came out of there with a decent amount of money. Me and Kinney (Harrell) were high team the next year, I think we won second. Kind of just kept rolling from there, kept drawing good.”
Tsinigine’s track record having qualified for the Reno Rodeo short round high call so many years gave Buhler some extra confidence.
“I think we drew the three very best steers,” Buhler said. “I think Aaron, he was in the barrier every single time, he roped them good and set every one of ’em up really good. I mean, to me, my part was the easiest part of the whole deal. With him being high callback six out of nine years, like I’ve told people, I don’t think it matters who was heeling for him. Every year he goes, he’s proven that he’s going to have a chance to win first. I think I was the lucky guy that got to heel for him this time.”
Veteran horsepower in Reno
Tsinigine’s horsepower is also a Reno Rodeo veteran. Chief, a 14-year-old sorrel gelding, helped Tsinigine take the 2022 Reno Rodeo title with Kyle Lockett.
“[Reno 2022] was actually his first time at a big one, kind of one of his first outings at that time,” Tsinigine said. “He’s a little more seasoned now. He’s got the start figured out over there. We get a rare and a go, so anything more than that, you don’t want to be chasing them that far down over there.”
A no-brainer, Buhler called on his own veteran, Knight Robber Son, better known as Hoss.
“That horse is just a winner,” Buhler said. “It don’t matter if you’re riding him at Pendleton, Salinas, Houston, Reno or at the NFR. He’s 21 years old, and he’s been rode by high-level heelers his entire life. He gets the assignment. To me, it’s one of the rare horses that you’ll find where you don’t have to think about anything except heeling. And I think when a guy’s lucky enough to have one like that in your career, it’s like they get the call every single time, especially at the big jobs.”
A balancing act
Despite jumping in the world standings, Tsinigine isn’t forcing anything, even with Cowboy Christmas underway. While he doesn’t know exactly how the year will go or if he’s even hunting down another NFR trip, there’s no added pressure in Tsinigine’s opinion.
“My main goal was to make the Canadian Finals, and so that was really all I set out to do,” Tsinigine said. “And then me and Buhler, I happened to see if he wanted to go to Reno and a few more places and he said yes. So, I think Buhler’s right there around the Top 15 somewhere, and we’ll see what happens. We’re entered in a few next week and one or two after that, and then I’m going to try to come back to Canada and Indian rodeo and go to a few Canadian rodeos and see where it leads us.”
Buhler finds himself in a similar mindset. One of the highest-caliber heelers in the game and also a premier rope horse trainer, the opportunities are endless for him in both fields.
“Right now, I’m really just working on my roping and my horses,” Buhler said. “I don’t really have the idea of retirement in my head. I’m 37 years old; for me personally, it’s not old enough to be like, oh yeah, I’m retired. I’m working at my roping maybe harder now than I ever have, and I think I love it more now than I ever have. I’ve gotten that through the futurities, like the horses and stuff like that–I love that end of it now. So when I go to rodeos, it’s fun because it’s kind of a task too.”
