Logan Bird’s “Peso” is on his third trip to the Wrangler NFR, helping fourth cowboy Brushton Minton compete within the iconic yellow walls of the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

Few horses can rise to the performance the indoor arena demands, but Peso has done it repeatedly with unwavering resolve.

“He’s really steady in the box,” Bird said. “You can back him in there, sit forever and, no matter how he’s standing, he will leave off my hand. He’s the best-leaving horse I’ve ever had. I think that’s why a lot of people like him for the Thomas & Mack.”

Peso started competing at the NFR when another horse owned by Bird died due to an aortic aneurysm just a few weeks before the 2021 NFR. Shane Hanchey had ridden the horse called “TJ” all year and took his death hard. Although Peso had never competed at the NFR, Bird was confident he fit the bill. Hanchey and Peso went on to win Round 1 with a 7.4-second run.

“I try to pattern my horses so that they do the same thing every time, no matter who is on them,” Bird said.

Peso’s NFR riders

2021 – Shane Hanchey and Westyn Hughes

2022 – Tuf Cooper and Ty Harris*

2023 – Brushton Minton

*in Round 8

Bird lets people ride Peso at Canadian rodeos like the Calgary Stampede, too. In 2022, Hanchey and Kyle Lucas went 1-2 on him at the Ponoka Stampede.

“I go to most Canadian ProRodeos, and I’ve made the CNFR for the last 8 years,” Bird said. “And the last four years were on Peso.”

In 2021 and 2022, Peso was named the Canadian Tie-Down Roping Horse of the Year.

The start of Peso

Hailing from Nanton, Alberta, Bird cuts his teeth training tie-down horses—as many as 20 a year.

“In 2017 in the town over from me, an older gentleman was ranching on him, and he was too much horse,” Bird explained. “He wanted to get rid of him.”

Bird paid around $8,000 USD for Peso, who took to tie-down roping quickly.

“I couldn’t have never imagined he ended up being what he was,” Bird said. “I knew pretty early that he had a chance to be good because, from the beginning, he was really good in the corner. He would go in there, sit perfect and, when you would drop your hand, he would get after it. That was after about five days of roping.”

Peso had a lot of run and not so much stop, so that was Bird’s main area of training. He’d breakaway on calves and “throw as soon as I got close,” trying to tighten Peso up.

“A horse like him is never going to be tight, though,” Bird said.

A true cow horse

Peso is sired by a Shining Spark stallion Shiners Black Cat, and on the bottom side he traces back to Doc O’Lena twice.

“I didn’t have any experience with that bloodline before I got him,” Bird said. “But now I have his 3-year-old, half-brother that looks exactly like him and a colt out of his full sister. I’ve started collecting them now.”

Peso’s 2023 NFR gig

Minton had only practiced on Peso twice at home before he and the buckskin stepped into the Thomas & Mack. When the NFR rookie was asked why he decided to change up his horse string so soon before the NFR, he said “I wanted to get on the best horse I could get on.”

Minton and Peso’s Round 1 didn’t go as they’d hoped, with Minton missing his calf and getting the job done on his second loop in 19.8 seconds.

“Tonight I need to go at it like any rodeo,” Minton said.” Don’t get worked up because it’s the Thomas & Mack. It’s definitely a different feel when you go in there, so you just need to go relax and do your thing. Go rope.”

Minton said he’s focusing on hitting the start with Peso and taking advantage of the horses’ NFR experience.

— CalfRoping.com —

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