Seba Dalkai, Arizona’s James Arviso walked into the Rancho Rio sale two years ago looking at one horse. He left with the cheapest one in the ring—and the one that just won him a set of Reno Rodeo Silver Spurs.

Arviso, the 20-year-old 2025 Resistol Rookie Header of the Year, and Sturgis, South Dakota’s Levi Lord, a five-time NFR heeler, won the team roping average at the 2026 Reno Rodeo, stopping the clock in 15.0 seconds on three head for $10,516 apiece in their first Reno together. The horse under Arviso for all three rounds was a bay gelding he calls “Chili Dog”—registered as Trauado Lena—the same one he tied the world record on with a 3.2-second run alongside Rance Doyal at Rodeo Austin in March.

He almost didn’t stop for him.

“Actually, it’s probably my mom’s idea—only reason why we got him, I guess,” Arviso said. He was driving through Wickenburg on his way to Lake Havasu when she called. “All she said was, ‘You need to stop in and watch this horse.’ That’s all she said.”

What he found was a horse Brock Hanson had in training and was showing at the sale for owner Todd Mathews and partner Bill Farmer. Per Arviso, the seller had the horse reserved at $75,000 and told him before the ring he wouldn’t take anything under $30,000—then turned his reserve off and let him go.

“Walked in there for one horse and then raised my hand the most times,” Arviso said. “That’s how it works.”

He gave $34,000 for a 2014-model horse that, by then, was a decade old and still learning the job.

Hanson, who put the early miles on him, said the horse always had the raw material.

“He had all the tools and a lot of talent—just needed somebody to put them together, and JP’s done an amazing job with that.”

‘Expect the Unexpectable’

The breeding backs Hanson up. Trauado Lena is a son of the Smart Little Lena stallion Mifillena, out of the Doc O’Lena-bred mare QR Travelen Babe—a foundation cutting and cow-horse cross with Doc O’Lena stacked on both sides. Bred to read a cow, he found his job on the end of a rope.

The talent came with a temperament. Chili Dog was green when Arviso got him, and in a lot of ways he still is.

“He was actually really green. He was really green. He was really finicky in the box. Spooked of a lot of things,” Arviso said.

He hasn’t fully grown out of it.

“He still gets weird,” Arviso said. “He’s still weird in the box. And as many steers as I’ve roped on him, he don’t like the stripping chute at all.”

That unpredictability is the part Arviso has learned to ride. As for how he stays ahead of the horse, he didn’t hesitate: “Expect the unexpectable.”

Reno was a clinic in exactly that. The bay scored poorly but ran free in the first round, where they won second with a 3.8. He scored well but ran tight in the second round, good for fourth with a 4.4-second run. Then he turned free again in the short round, where Arviso and Lord were third in the round with a 5.1 to lock up the average. Arviso took whatever the horse handed him each night.

“It feels like he knows,” Arviso said. “He likes to win. There’s times where he’ll tell you to throw, and you throw, and it works.”

A Family Operation

Arviso isn’t doing it alone. He came up roping around his uncle, NFR header Derrick Begay, and the veteran Navajo crew he runs with, including 2015 World Champ Aaron Tsinigine, who sold Arviso the older bay he won the 2018 NFR Average on.

“We’re all just trying to help each other out, however we can,” Arviso said. “Derrick will ride my horse, and Aaron’s done a lot. He lets me ride his horse sometimes.”

His parents are in the rig, too. His mom, flew in for Reno, and his dad is hauling, parked in Mandan, North Dakota, waiting on the next one.

The Reno spurs cap a fast start to the partnership Lord built when he tapped the rookie for 2026, and Arviso likes the way the season is drawing up over Cowboy Christmas.

“This is the best drawing up I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Pedigree: Trauado Lena

2014 bay gelding — Breeder: Alberto Moreira Leal · Owner of record: Todd Mathews

• Sire: Mifillena (1991) — Smart Little Lena (Doc O’Lena x Smart Peppy) / Miss Freckles Last (Colonel Freckles x Josie Last)
• Dam: QR Travelen Babe (2007) — Travalena (Doc O’Lena x Bar Socks Babe) / Oaks Riata Babe (Riata Man x Oaks Sugar Babe)

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