Cole Eiguren and Breck Ward left the Columbia River Circuit Finals Oct. 18, as the average champions, pocketing $3,687 each.
The Idaho and Oregon natives finished their weekend in Redmond, Oregon, with a total of 18.0 seconds on three head and a spot at the 2026 NFR Open.
On the first steer, Eiguren and Ward were 7.4 seconds—just fast enough to stay in the hunt.
“Our steer dang sure started and left,” Eiguren, 24, 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, also 24, 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 2 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 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 2—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 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 was 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 the California Rodeo 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 made famous by five-time NFR heeler Levi Lord as “Birdie.”
“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.”
Minor brothers win year-end with $47K
Perhaps no team is more synonymous with the Columbia River Circuit than Ellensburg, Washington’s Minor brothers. Thanks to their 2025 circuit success, Riley and Brady now own seven circuit titles together—eight for Brady, who picked up an additional championship in 2017 while Riley was sidelined with a broken leg.
Brady also claimed the Ram National Circuit Finals Rodeo title in 2012 roping with Spencer Mitchell and still holds the record for consecutive Columbia River year-end titles, four straight from 2016 through 2019.
The 2025 ProRodeo season was large for the Minor brothers on multiple levels. After finishing just shy of the Top 15—17th and 19th in the PRCA world standings with $100,100.30 and $98,420.05—in 2024, the Minors are headed back to the Thomas & Mack this December sitting 12th and 11th in the world with $125,025.27 won. It marks their first return trip to Las Vegas since 2022, marking Riley’s 12th and Brady’s 14th career NFR appearances.
And though they’re amongst the best of the best in the country, they still value their home turf. Riley and Brady finished atop the Columbia River Circuit standings with $47,096 apiece in 2025. They kicked off their circuit season with the High Desert Stampede win in Redmond this April for $3,884 apiece. They also pocketed $2,911 a man at the Basin City Freedom Rodeo in Washington over the Fourth of July. At this year’s NFR Open, the Minors split second with a 5.4 in the clean-slate Finals for $8,500 a man. Some other big circuit wins included the Cheney Rodeo in Washington for $2,659 apiece; the Chief Joseph Days win for $1,918 a man; a $3,846-a-man trip to the Farm-City Pro Rodeo in Hermiston, Oregon; $4,065 a man at Kennewick, Washington’s Horse Heaven Roundup Rodeo, which included the short-round win; the second-round win at the Ellensburg Rodeo in Washington for $4,049 apiece; and the Othello PRCA Rodeo win in Washington for $2,346 each.
Riley and Brady rounded out the season at the Columbia River Circuit Finals where they won $5,838 apiece. The Minors placed second in Round 1 with a 5.4-second run for $1,844 a man, third in Round 3 with a 5.0 for $1,229 a man, and second in the average with a 20.5 on three head worth $2,765 apiece.
