Cole Eiguren and Breck Ward left the Columbia River Circuit Finals on Oct. 18 as average champions, pocketing $3,687 each.
The Idaho and Oregon natives finished their weekend in Redmond, Oregon, with a total on three head of 18.0 seconds and a second-place check in the second round, securing their spot at the 2026 NFR Open.
On the first steer, they were 7.4 seconds—just fast enough to stay in the hunt.
“Our steer dang sure started and left,” Eiguren said. “He was good; he followed a little bit, but I was pretty late. Breck did a good job getting up there and catching him because that steer, in all three rounds, wanted to follow the head horse as soon as the head rope went on.”
Coming into the circuit finals in the top five but out of contention for the year-end title, the pair focused solely on the average.
“When we were down there, I figured we better just catch him and shoot for the average,” Ward said. “We didn’t really have a chance at the year-end. I just made sure to kick over him, take a good shot, and see how the average played out throughout the week.”
After their clean first run, the four teams behind them made solid runs, bumping them out of any round money. But round two was a different story.
“On the second one, we had a good steer,” Ward said. “We needed to go a little bit faster to have a chance at the average with everybody going five the day before.”
Their 4.9-second run landed them second in the round for $1,844 a man.
“Jake Stanley had that steer in the first round and made a good run on him,” Eiguren said. “I was just wanting to put us back in it. It helped a lot knowing what the steer was going to do. It wasn’t like we were trying to do anything special—we had a good steer, and I was in the barrier. Turns out it’s a lot easier to head when you’re in the barrier.”
Going into the final round in a slow-back format, Eiguren and Ward were third high callback.
“Our game plan going into the last round was just to complete the course,” Eiguren said. “We wanted to do the same thing we did in round two—get out, make an aggressive, clean run. We had the strongest steer in the pen, and we knew that didn’t help our case. Breck heels incredible, so I just tried not to be late and trusted he’d take care of the backside.”
Their 5.7-second run didn’t place in the round, but when the top two teams missed, it sealed their title as the 2025 Columbia River Circuit Finals average champions.
“We knew the team that was second in the average had us by about half a second,” Ward said of Jake Stanley and Jason Duby. “We figured we could get by them if we made a good run. Then Garrett Rogers and Jake Minor had us by two seconds, so they just had to catch. We just went for the best run we could and let it play out.”
Their $5,531 weekend wouldn’t have been possible without their horsepower.
Eiguren was aboard RH Apache Trigger, or “Newt”—his dad’s 8-year-old gray gelding that waiting for him in Oregon after he flew back from the COJO Open in Belton, Texas. Newt also got the call at some big rodeos this season, including the short round at Salinas.
“I’m blessed to be able to ride him,” Eiguren said. “He’ll never take your throw away. He might not be the flashiest, but he scores great. He’s just a good horse to have.”
Ward was riding Zoomin Diamond Prom, or “Little Bay”, the 15-year-old gelding once known as Birdie when owned by five-time NFR heeler Levi Lord.
“I bought him when he was five, then sold him when I quit for a bit,” Ward said. “That’s the same horse Levi rode at the Finals the last couple years. When I decided to start rodeoing again this year, I figured if I was going to do it, that’s the horse I wanted back.”
