The 2023 Governor’s Cup team roping is full of elite horsepower, more similar to the horsepower we’ll see at the Thomas & Mack come December than the Cheyenne Frontier Days short round horse list.
- The only mare in the field is Brenten Hall’s DMO Sand Drifter, owned by Ken Bray and Logan Olson. She is the talented mare that won the NFR average title with Erich Rogers in 2020, and the horse that’s been a fill-in for Paden Bray’s partners ever since. She’s by Logan Olson’s former stallion Dash OnA Drifter, a horse Rogers also rode at the NFR early in his career.
- 15.8 years is the (predictable) average age of the head horses on the list, with Clint Summers’ WSR Hesa Alive the oldest in the field at 19. He’s also the winningest this year and perhaps one of the winningest of all time, having carried Kaleb Driggers to The American Rodeo title in 2023 with a career that extends back to winning Salinas with breeder Jason Adams back in 2011.
- The heel horses are predictably younger, averaging 11.25 years. The youngest is fresh out of his futurity year—Logan Medlin’s TRR Freckles Holidoc. Wesley Thorp is also riding a former futurity mount in Juiced Up Cat, his 2020 ARHFA World Champion.
- The Tongue River Ranch has two horses in the clean-slate short round today—Colter Todd’s TRR Big Hustler, owned by World Champ Paul Eaves, and Medlin’s TRR Freckles Holidoc.
Brenten Hall and Paden Bray
Head Horse: DMO Sand Drifter, 16-year-old mare
Heel Horse: Hugh Hefner, 18-year-old grade gelding
Clay Smith and Coleby Payne
Head Horse: Chief Quannah Parker, 17-year-old gelding
Heel Horse: Cut Off My Spots, 14-year-old gelding
Tyler Wade and Wesley Thorp
Head Horse: Espuelo Bro, 16-year-old gelding
Heel Horse: Juiced Up Cat, 9-year-old gelding
Luke Brown and Hunter Koch
Head Horse: DM Jet Off, 14-year-old gelding
Heel Horse: Two Sock Chic Cody, 13-year-old gelding
Clint Summers and Jake Long
Head Horse: WSR Hesa Alive, 19-year-old gelding
Heel Horse: JC Bar Diamond, 11-year-old gelding
Marcus Theriot and Cole Curry
Head Horse: Grand Two Eyed Dan, 16-year-old gelding
Heel Horse: Liken It Tuff, 9-year-old gelding
Coleman Proctor and Logan Medlin
Head Horse: SCR Sporties Playgun, 15-year-old gelding
Heel Horse: TRR Freckles Holidoc, 7-year-old gelding
Derrick Begay and Colter Todd
Head Horse: Not Actually Grade But…
Heel Horse: TRR Big Hustler, 12-year-old gelding
