Bar Z Nickel Olena has carried Trevor Brazile, Kaleb Driggers, Dustin Bird, Whitney DeSalvo, Kenna Francis and Maddie Webb.
As of Tuesday night, June 9, 2026, “Yahtzee” carries Karstyn Francis—all 8 years of her.
The 2004 grey gelding—a grandson of Doc O’Lena out of a Colonels Hotrodder-bred mare—is home for good at Mathews Land & Cattle in Las Vegas, New Mexico, where Karstyn, the daughter of BFI champion Chris Francis and Premiere Women’s Rodeo header Kenna Francis, roped steers on him June 9m after Webb finished her time on him.
It’s the retirement plan the Francis family telegraphed two years ago, when Yahtzee was still cashing checks at the 2024 WRWC under both Webb and DeSalvo at 20 years old: When he was done with Webb, he’d come back to New Mexico to be Karstyn’s head horse.
Karstyn isn’t exactly starting from scratch. She already runs 1D barrel racing times, ropes breakaway calves and ropes every day. Yahtzee’s job is to teach her the head side.
“He’s as close to a unicorn as it gets,” Kenna said. “It was always the plan that he’d come home when Karstyn was ready for him, and now she is.”
Two Decades in the Making
Yahtzee’s resume reads like a history of the head side over the last 12 years.
Brazile bought the gelding from Leon Labrier, of Canyon, Texas, after NFR calf roper Doug Clark, of Wayne, Oklahoma, billed him as both a head and heel horse.
“He was a heel horse mainly, but I went to heading on him,” Brazile told The Team Roping Journal in 2018. “He always wanted to score good. Any head horse, the reason they’re in my barn, is that’s what I liked about them first.”
Brazile seasoned him for a year and sold him to businessman and eventual Cheyenne champion Brandon Webb, who sold him to Driggers before the first-ever American Rodeo in 2014. Driggers and Yahtzee exploded onto the scene at AT&T Stadium, winning the $100,000 payday with Patrick Smith.
Driggers sold Yahtzee to Bird in 2015, and the Montana header dominated the small-building rodeos on him in Canada, winning the Canadian team roping title with Russell Cardoza in 2016. Bird rode Yahtzee to NFR go-round wins in Round 8 in 2016 and Round 2 in 2017.
“I hardly ever sell horses,” Bird told TRJ in 2018. “They usually just stay around my place. I didn’t want to sell him, but I didn’t want to see him going to waste, either, because he has so much left.”
With his second son on the way, Bird sent Yahtzee back to Driggers, who rode him through 2018 to finish second in the world, placing in seven of 10 go-rounds and second in the NFR average. Driggers won Round 9 in 2019 on him with a 3.6-second run—Yahtzee’s last NFR go-round win.
Chris Francis bought Yahtzee in 2020, and the gelding pulled double duty—helping Kenna place at the BFI All-Girl Championship in Guthrie and helping Chris at the shorter PRCA setups. By 2024, at 20, he was still winning at the WRWC in Cowtown Coliseum, where Webb won second in Round 1 of the Challenger division and DeSalvo won the Pro division Round 1 on him an hour apart.
Brazile’s read on the horse from 2018 might explain why he’s the right teacher now.
“He’s just so solid, stays flat and let Driggers do his deal,” Brazile said then. “It’s really hard to find a head horse that’s great but not remarkable in any certain thing. That’s a trait that you look for, because a lot of horses that have this big wow factor also come along with a challenge in certain areas, like they’re harder to ride or deal with. He’s good about being a great horse and not being noticed. He makes the roper look better than any one trait that he has.”
Now the roper he’s making look better is 8.
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