Riley Minor will not get to back into the yellow box at the Thomas & Mack for the 2022 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo on his great horse RK Tuff Trinket—famously called Bob—after a stifle injury has the 20-year-old gelding sidelined for a few months.

This will be Minor’s first Finals without Bob since 2015, after Minor narrowly missed an NFR qualification in 2020 and 2021.

“He tore his meniscus in his stifle,” Minor, 34, of Ellensburg, Washington, explained. “The vet said he needed 6 to 8 weeks off, and it’s been 7 weeks. I’m going to ultrasound it soon, but I don’t want to rush it.”

Bob is so tough, he had already torn the meniscus without showing any signs of weakness when he won the Wrangler Finals in October before Minor discovered the injury.

With hopes of Bob’s recovery for 2023, Minor will jump on Bucky and Amy Campbell’s rock solid campaigner Peppys Robber, by Knight Robber out of Miss Misty Peppy by Freckles Little Pep. “Piggy” is a paternal sibling to the horse Jeremy Buhler will heel on at this year’s NFR, Knight Robbers Son, who he calls Hoss.

Minor enters the Finals with $89,022.28 won in 12th place in his 11th trip to the NFR.