2024 Nutrena Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year, Presented by AQHA

By Lane Karney and Kendra Santos for The American Quarter Horse Journal

They say the life of a rodeo cowboy is one big roller coaster ride. Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world champion steer wrestler Ty Erickson lived that this year, with his horse Finding Meno winning the 2024 Nutrena Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year award, presented by AQHA, being one of the highlights that lifted him from the depths of deep disappointment. 

Ty, who won the world in 2019 and is this year wrestling steers at his ninth Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, was rocking the rodeo world in the early going of this 2024 season when disaster struck this spring at the rodeo in Clovis, California. In a freak accident during a run there, the 6’ 5” cowboy shipwrecked his left ankle. Surgery sat him down on the sidelines, so he took his 13-year-old black gelding Finding Meno, aka “Crush,” home to Montana with him for an unexpected months-long break. 

When Ty and Crush returned in July and won the $50,000 champion’s check at the Calgary Stampede, it was a dream come true and Ty’s season was salvaged in one spectacular stop. 

“Calgary was the most emotional win I’ve ever had,” he says. “All the work I’d put in to get back to that point paid off. Winning that rodeo under those circumstances was one of the most special things I’ve ever done in rodeo.”

But then, this particular dream team has been the stuff of Hollywood scripts since Ty and his barrel racer wife, Cierra, bought this horse for $4,500 on a whim off of Facebook.

“Cierra saw Crush on Facebook in Idaho Falls,” Ty says. “He was 5, and they’d run him on the track some. She didn’t even ride him. She just had him vet checked and brought him home. In hindsight, he was a pretty good buy.”

The 2011 brown gelding is by Finding Nemo out of Streakin Rascal by Streakin Dash and was bred by Mark and Holly Curtis of Idaho Falls, Idaho. He had nine starts on the track and one win. 

Cierra bought Crush as a barrel horse prospect. But come to find out, her sweet steer wrestler husband had his eye on him all along. Ty’s 2015 steer wrestling horse of the year “Shakem” (KR Montana Shake Em, who was co-owned by the Kyler Ranch) also came off the track, so it felt like a familiar song. But it’s the horses themselves who decide these things.

“When we first got Crush, Cierra’s dad rode him on the ranch for a year or two,” Ty says. “Then Cierra rode him for two years after that. We needed him to be more broke. When she showed him the barrels, he was terrible. Cierra did not enjoy riding Crush at all. He’s not very fun to ride around, but he will stand flat-footed in the corner and run fast. I started running Crush by some steers, and he could really run. From the start, you could tell he enjoyed it. 

“I jumped the first steers off of Crush in 2018, and his first rodeo was in the winter of 2019 in Mercedes, Texas. I wanted to season him that year, so we took him to Canada, and I rode him at quite a few rodeos up there. Then, with only 20-25 rodeos under his belt, I rode Crush at the NFR in 2019.”

And yes, that was Ty’s breakthrough year when he won his first world championship. Ty will ride Crush at the Thomas & Mack again this year, as will traveling partners and fellow finalists J. D. Struxness and Rowdy Parrott. 

“It doesn’t matter who gets on Crush, he will not move in the box,” Ty says. “The second thing that makes him so good is how much run he has. This horse gives his all every time.”

The tiny confines of the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas play to Crush’s strengths. Matt Reeves will be lining steers out over on the hazing side aboard his and wife Savanah’s horse French Kirk, who is a 2011 sorrel gelding by American Quarter Horse Hall of Famer Frenchmans Guy and out of Jenny Kirk by No Brakes Now. 

“Crush shines when the start is fast, and he definitely fits that building,” Ty says. “If you have to let the steer out very much, we usually don’t ride him.”

Ty steers clear of ranking horses he has ridden over the years. 

“It’s so hard to compare them,” he says. “I’ve ridden so many great ones, and every horse has his strengths and weaknesses, just like people. What I will say about all of them is that horsepower is everything. There are so many guys who bulldog so good. Whoever can get his feet on the ground fastest is usually who’s going to win the most.”

Though he’s not trail-horse chill, Crush got his barn name because of his easygoing nature.

“We named Crush after the laid-back sea turtle on the movie ‘Finding Nemo,’” Ty says. “This horse is like that turtle until he walks in the box. Then he’s on go. Crush has gotten better every single year. I’m super excited to be back on him at the NFR.”

Ty’s NFR cheering section grew this year, as baby boy Tee joined big sister Cedona and Cierra on Team Ty. 

“What a year it has been for our family,” Ty says. “And for Crush to win this award by a vote of the cowboys is very special. When you’re a horse trainer and your fellow bulldoggers appreciate your horse, well, that means the world to me.”

Tanner Milan’s Eds Famous Bar is the reserve Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year. “Eddie” will be ridden by world leader Dalton Massey and Scott Guenthner at this year’s NFR, with Milan handling the hazing chores. Eddie is a 2013 brown gelding by EMW Noah Famous One and out of Hortons Kim Bar by Mr Horton, bred by Janet Patriquin of New Sarepta, Alberta.

Broom Tree Ranch’s Off The Fence, “Swamper,” helped Will Lummus and Dakota Eldridge punch their 2024 NFR tickets, and he finished third in the voting. Swamper is a 2015 bay gelding by racehorse Stel Corona and out of Sis Hits by 2003 AQHA Racing Champion 2-Year-Old Colt Champion Hawkish. He was bred by American Quarter Horse Hall of Famer Ed Allred of Cypress, California.