Acclaimed all-around horseman Robbie Boyce and Shes Foxie N Sweet were 671.41 on three head to be second overall and high call in the limited and intermediate classes of the 4-and-Under Pre-Futurity heading at the Old West Futurity in Heber City, Utah.

A 5 header, Boyce, 53, is a long-time trainer with over $1 million in lifetime earnings across the NRHA, NRCHA and NCHA. He also serves as a judge for the ARHFA, where he has judged the 2024 and 2025 ARHFA World Championships.

The Dualin Cats mare was bred and raised through the Cowan Select Horses program where Boyce manages the horse operation. She started her career pointed toward the cow horse pen, but Boyce saw something else in her early on.

“She felt more inclined to go towards the rope horse program,” Boyce said. “We started messing with her as a 3-year-old and heading through this direction. She’s a very athletic mare, got a big motor, but pretty easy to contain and just been a very nice mare to train.”

Getting her there wasn’t without a few bumps. Boyce showed her twice in the spring at Ardmore, but came up short with a broken barrier here, a heeler miss there.

“We stubbed our toe both times,” Boyce said. “She showed good, but things happened. Really, this is the first time we’ve gotten three of them down this far.”

This mare is by Dualin Cats, a 2013 stallion by Metallic Cat and out of Lethal Dually, by High Brow Cat, putting two of the most decorated sires in the history of the cutting horse industry on the top of her papers. Metallic Cat, the 2008 NCHA Open Futurity Champion, has produced more than $70 million in progeny earnings and has been named AQHA Sire of the Year seven consecutive times, while High Brow Cat ranks as the all-time leading sire in NCHA earnings with more than $95 million in progeny earnings.

Dualin Cats is no stranger to Boyce, who showed the stallion to the NCHA Futurity Limited Open Reserve title himself. Her dam is Foxie In Style. Shes Foxie N Sweet was bred and is owned by Cowan Select Horses LLC.

The result is a reflection of a broader shift happening at Cowan Select Horses, with their headquarters in Montana on a cow-calf operation, Boyce has long worked across disciplines—cutting, cow horse, rope horse. In recent years, the program has leaned harder into the futurity rope horse world, and Boyce said it’s been a natural fit.

“We’ve kind of switched gears and devoted more time in our breeding towards the roping industry,” he said. “It kind of coincides more with the main ranches in Montana. The horses we can raise for this rope horse deal kind of fit for that also.”

The growth of the futurity industry is a big reason why, Boyce said. What was once a thin market for horses that didn’t make the cut in the cutting pen has developed into something far more intentional.

“Before, our reject cutters and cow horses—you could sell horses and there wasn’t a lot of places for them to go,” Boyce said. “Well, now it’s an actual industry that we can breed towards and actually have a goal of raising very nice rope horse prospects. It’s really in a short period of time turned into quite an industry.”

He credited the Old West specifically, and the futurity industry broadly, for creating the infrastructure that makes programs like his viable.

“It’s really neat what the Old West is doing and really all the entire roping industry’s doing for the futurities,” Boyce said. “There’s significant money to win now.”

Boyce heads into Saturday’s short round with a lead in the limited and intermediate, and a realistic shot at the futurity title. He’s measured about what it means.

“We got some chances anyways, and that’s all we asked for,” he said. “At the end of the day, give you a shot.”

Pre Futurity Heading Open Results on Three

Pre Futurity Intermediate Heading Results on Three

Pre Futurity Limited Heading Results on Three