How many cowboys can relate to what Coleman Proctor went through when his horse Jesse James never took a lame step until he priced him for big money? This one was supposed to be a barrel horse, not a head horse. Then he was supposed to be someone else’s head horse. But fate was having none of that.
Coleman’s wife, Stephanie, bought Mabee Jessy Can, who’d been started as a racehorse on the track, in 2016 as a 4-year-old barrel-horse prospect.
“Here comes Bruce Bell pulling a stock trailer one cold day, and he unloads this sorrel with a huge head and a small body,” remembers Coleman, who’s on track to this year make his ninth Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. “He hands her the lead rope, and she hands him the check.”
When Coleman, who lives in Pryor, Oklahoma, with Steph and their three girls, called this horse common, he felt he was being generous.
“Jesse James is a grandson of the racehorse Mr Jess Perry (who was a 2019 inductee into the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame),” Coleman said. “Steph wanted to run barrels on him. I had no interest.”
Sadly for Steph, that’s sort of how Jesse James felt about barrel racing. But Team Proctor gave him his best shot at being good at something by taking the time and money to build a solid foundation.
“I had a young kid cleaning stalls for me whose dad runs the stallion station at the Lazy E, and he’d started Jesse James on the track,” Coleman remembers. “He was gentle, but he was not broke beyond the track when we got him. All he knew how to do was run in a straight line.
“A good friend of mine’s wife started Jesse James for us to get a better handle on him. Then my buddy Ryan Gatewood rode him on the ranch. Then I sent him to Kollin VonAhn. Steph got him going on the barrels. But when Jesse got too strong on the barrel pattern, Steph said, ‘Why don’t you start heading on him?’ We had to make something out of him, he cost us $1,000.”
That was, of course, said with a smile on Coleman’s face, and the training tacked onto that blue-light special price tag was not cheap. Still, what a bargain Jesse James has become.
“I started heading on him when he was 7,” said Coleman, who just turned 39 on August 30 about the now-12-year-old Jesse James. “I roped some extra steers at a jackpot early on, and he was outstanding. He’s short-strided, and can haul ass. I took him to a California round-robin roping that was all about catching over New Year’s in 2018, and won it on him. That horse has always been a winner.”
Before Jesse James became a rodeo horse, he was the one Coleman was most likely to put you on if you happened by his place and wanted to head or heel a few.
“He was just easy,” Coleman said. “I had lessons guys heel on him. When Jesse James really got to coming on was when I was roping with Motesy (Ryan Motes) in 2019. We won The American, so I came home. I circuit rodeoed with my good friend Griffin Passmore at the Prairie Circuit rodeos instead of going to the Northwest in the fall. That’s when I started hauling Jesse.
“Jesse’s first rodeo was Vinita, Oklahoma. There was a big mud hole, and he ran around it. But we placed in the second round and average. That fall, when I was prepping for the NFR, is when Jesse James became great. Mind you, I had Heisman and Admiral. But Jesse felt so sharp. He felt just a touch green when I took him to town for my NFR roping, so I left him home. But by then, I felt like I was on to something.”
Proctor joined forces with his current partner, Logan Medlin, in 2021.
“Admiral was hurt for the first time, and Heisman got sick,” Coleman remembers. “Logan had just made his first Finals on his 2020 Horse of the Year Drago. And I was down to Jesse James. I was like, ‘Alright, big boy, this is your time.’ 2021 is when I threw him to the wolves.
“We had a good winter, but Jesse got a little frazzled and needed a break. He had his first meltdown in the box after he banged his hocks on the butt bar that was a little low leaving the corner at a roping. I fought that all spring, then took him to the Northwest that fall after giving him a break, because I had Heisman back in the rig and was working Jesse through it.”
Tiffany Wagner goes with Coleman all the time, and is a cousin to 2019 World Champion Steer Wrestler Ty Erickson. Tiffany’s who suggested Coleman talk to Ty about those box problems.
READ: 5 Headers on Keeping Horses Cool in the Box
“I was wondering how a bulldogger was going to help me with my horse in the box,” Proctor said. “Ty taught me a lot about how to make a horse comfortable in the corner. Anyway, we got through that, and that fall (2021) I had three rodeos left at the finish line—Amarillo (Texas) with Logan, Stephenville (Texas) with Thomas Smith and San Bernardino (California) with Kyle Lockett.
“I rode Jesse James at Amarillo, and we won good. I rode Heisman at Stephenville, and airballed it. Tiffany drove Jesse to San Bernardino, because with my NFR life on the line I wanted to ride Jesse James.”
Jesse came through, albeit an unlikely hero.
“We had to win fifth or better in that last perf at San Bernardino for me to make the Finals,” Coleman said. “I looked at Jesse James and said, ‘You’re an amazing animal. Let’s go show ’em how special you are.’ I missed the barrier, but that horse tried to break his shoes in half getting to that steer. I dropped the hammer, and Jesse went next level to get me there. I had to reach, but I think we won third. We got the Finals made, and headed back home.
READ: 2023 NFR-Qualifying Head Horse Pedigrees
“Jesse James has always stepped up big when I need him. He can have an attitude, but he’s always on your team. If he was human, he’d be the friend who’s always one phone call away.”
Jesse’s fought back from some small injuries Coleman calls “silly.”
“Coincidence or not, he only takes a lame step when I price him to somebody for big money,” Coleman grins. “I think I’m just meant to own this one.”
—TRJ—
