Nicky Northcott just took 2025 Resistol Rookie Heeler of the Year honors by a landslide, daylighting the field by more than double. He barely missed his first NFR, coming up just $643 short of a trip to the Thomas & Mack in Las Vegas in 16th place. But you can’t get this kid to brag or complain. He instead chooses to focus on his roping and his horses—you know, things he can control. This is a story about the palomino heel horse that joined Team Northcott last year to take some runs off of Nicky’s old faithful Brown, and has now made his move to main mount.
To recap Northcott’s sensational rookie rodeo season, he rode in ready on the heels of running the extras with Cory Kidd at the 2024 NFR just after turning 18. Quick spins in that little building can jerk your drawers down. Not Nicky, who called it, “A great time.”
Northcott kicked off 2025 heeling for Kidd, then roped with Clay Tryan and James Arviso before his first rodeo behind Clay Smith at Guymon (Oklahoma) in May. Smith and Northcott were a smash hit, and had great success together.
Dominating the rookie field might be cool to the rest of us. To Nicky, not so much.
“I never thought about the rookie deal,” said Northcott, who’s 19 now. “I was trying to make the NFR, so it never really crossed my mind. Making the NFR was my only goal.”
For those who didn’t quite realize how dramatic his regular-season finish was in 2025, Nicky was 11th in the world riding into the rich grand finale in Sioux Falls (South Dakota) that last week. Trey Yates and Douglas Rich winning good there knocked him down a few pegs. After having no luck at Sioux Falls, Smith and Northcott rolled on to the rodeo in Nicky’s hometown of Stephenville, Texas.
No good there, either. Nicky was 14th now, and three guys—Kaden Profili, Jonathan Torres and Wyatt Cox—had a chance to steal his spot at the rodeo in San Bernardino, California. Profili and Torres both did.
Torres finished 15th in the 2025 regular season with $111,672, and Northcott was 16th with $111,029. All Nicky took out of that $643 deficit was, “I just didn’t rope good enough to make it. The only thing I can think of is I need to catch more steers by two feet.”
The horsepower needed to get to the right spot ranks right up there with a header who can handle his end.
As Northcott puts it, “A good horse is what makes every good team roper. All the greats have had great horses. A great horse helps you win, and is a huge asset to the team.”
Last spring, Northcott found himself “short a horse.” He’d been riding his childhood buddy Brown (his registered name is Sofisticatto, and he’s 15 as of January 1).
“I’ve ridden Brown ever since I was young,” Nicky said. “I needed another horse, so I called Paden (Bray) to see if he had anything I could borrow. He said, ‘Yeah, sure,’ and I got Cabo (Tequila Dual just turned 16) right before the (2025) BFI. He was amazing. I called and asked if he’d sell him, and that’s how it worked out.
“Cabo’s really fast, keeps his head out of the way in the turn and gives me a good shot. He’s easy to catch on. You can ride him anywhere, and I think he’s great in all arenas.”
Northcott didn’t quite get to the 80 rodeos team ropers are allowed to count as official last year, because other rodeos conflicted with the timing of Sioux Falls and there was too much money there to sidestep it. He rode Brown at most of the rodeos into August, then finished strong on Cabo after jackpotting on him most of the year.
“I know the brown so well, and the palomino was newer to me at the time,” Nicky said. “The palomino is No. 1 now. I just get along with him good. Not everyone in his past did, but for whatever reason he just kind of fits my style and we work good together.
“I think Cabo’s a pretty easy horse all around. His only quirk is he can’t be by himself. He needs a friend. He and Brown are very buddy buddy.”
Northcott’s happy to be two deep in horses now, but shares the sentiment with most team ropers that the search never really ends.
“I’m pretty confident in these two horses, and I’ll take them back out there again this year,” he said. “But I never feel set on horses. I think I can win on these two horses in any setup, but I’m always looking. They don’t last forever.”
Nicky’s personal favorite 2025 highlight was splitting the win with Kaleb Driggers and Junior Nogueira at the Horse Heaven Roundup in Kennewick, Washington, the last part of August. Both teams were a salty 15.9 on three; he was on Brown.
“We didn’t win very many rodeos, and that was a pretty big three-header,” Northcott said. “So that was pretty cool.
Smith and Northcott will now take their show back out on the road in 2026.
“My only plan for 2026 is to catch two feet more,” Nicky said. “That’s the most important thing, so that’s the only goal.”
—TRJ—
