Stran Dunham turned down the older horse twice before Nite In Hickory—the 22-year-old he calls “Mississippi”—stopped the clock at 7.5 seconds for $9,898 in Cody, Wyoming, and another $21,250 at the Calgary Stampede.

For a horse Dunham never planned to haul this summer, that’s quite the chunk of change in such a short window. The 23-year-old from Souris, Manitoba sits 33rd in the world standings with $41,952 won this season, and a good portion of that has come off the back of a veteran horse that had already been passed around before he ever landed in his trailer.

Almost wasn’t

Dunham first saw Mississippi with a friend in Southern Alberta, Garret Hughson.

“I saw him at some amateur rodeos and I always liked him and always complimented on him,” Dunham said. “And one day Garret messaged me and said that I should buy the horse, and I said that at the time I didn’t really have enough money and I thought I had enough horsepower at the time, so I said I really appreciate that, but I basically couldn’t afford him.”

But Dunham kept thinking about it.

“Later on in that year, I kept thinking about it and thinking it wouldn’t hurt to have another horse,” Dunham said. “So I messaged him and went and tried him, and then I really liked him. I ended up buying him.”

Around the block

Part of what sold Dunham was the mileage. Mississippi was older, and he liked that the horse had been places and seen things. He just didn’t know how many places until after Calgary.

“A friend, Shane Berquist was his name, messaged Beau Cooper and said that was his old horse, and then I kind of got a little bit of the backstory on him,” Dunham said. “He said that he might have been with Tyson Durfey at one time, and he had kind of been around like that Washington area before my friend Garret owned him. Really, he’s kind of been around the block.”

The plan was never to lean on him this year. Dunham is based out of Alberta, and home in Manitoba is 13 or 14 hours the other direction, so he came into the season with his other two horses ready and Mississippi more or less on the shelf. Then his dad hauled Mississippi to him—which is about how this family works. Both of Dunham’s parents rodeoed, and his mom bought his dad his first set of calf ropes.

“I started practicing on him and I was like, shoot, I think I better try to take him and give him a chance,” Dunham said. “So then I took him and then I didn’t want to get off him.”

Easy to be around, too

Mississippi does not act his age, and he does not act like a horse that needs to be babied.

“He’s just been real easy with everything since I had him,” Dunham said. “And he likes to rodeo and he eats and drinks and likes getting on the trailer and everything.”

At home, he is a character.

“We put electric fence up, but I close the gates because he usually gets out of it and just eats around the yard,” Dunham said.

His versatility was the key factor in him being both Dunham and Bryce Derrer’s mount in Calgary, where it’s crucial to get across the line.

“I rode him at Calgary just because I feel like he was really easy to keep calves standing,” Dunham said. “He’d be a smidge freer and let you get in the strirrup, and that way he just lets you really set up a good calf on the go. He’ll let you go soon, or if you need a score, he’ll let you score it too. So I just say he’s kind of versatile.”

That versatility paid off for more than just Dunham. Dunham won $9,750 aboard Mississippi at Calgary, and his good friend Bryce Derrer picked up the third round win in Pool A with a 7.4, earning a total of $11,500 to advance to the semifinals.

Dunham and Derrer go back to Dunham’s year and a half at New Mexico Junior College, where they met through a mutual friend named Clay. Dunham shoes horses and ropes for a living, and Clay is the one who taught him to shoe—Clay having learned it from Derrer’s dad. So handing Derrer the reins at The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth came natural.

“I’m just happy to help Bryce out too,” Dunham said. “I’m good friends with him and his family and they’ve been real good to me.”

The secret to keeping a 22-year-old sound

For all the years on him, Mississippi has stayed remarkably fresh.

“We give him lots of good feed and he’s just like any older horse,” Dunham said. “He doesn’t really act like he’s old either, but he doesn’t get real plump. He just kind of stays the same. But I honestly haven’t really had to do any injection stuff with him either. He’s just been a good, well-built horse.”

For Dunham, Mississippi’s appeal was never one flashy trait.

“For me, it was just the same feel every time,” Dunham said. “Just really good timing and everything. He’d score good, he’d run good, he’d stop, let you get in the stirrup. I could tell he had enough run too. And that he was older. I liked that he’d been around.”

Mississippi is the new face on a string Dunham has built mostly at home. The horse he leaned heavily on this winter is a 13-year-old gelding he calls “Price,” a home-raised and trained horse. His main mount the last couple of years has been a 15-year-old black mare he calls “Latte,” who carried him to the Canadian Finals and to Calgary a year ago and made him the Reserve Canadian Champion in 2025. Chris and Latte are full siblings.

What’s next

For all the rodeo in the family, Dunham was not a born calf roper. Hockey was more his jam.

“I was like all about hockey and sports,” Dunham said. “But then around 15 is when I really started wanting to rope, and that’s kind of where I made the switch that I knew that’s what I was wanting to do.”

He rodeoed through junior high and high school in Manitoba, college rodeoed for a year and a half at New Mexico Junior College, and amateur rodeoed while dabbling in the PRCA, and made the permit finals. This year the plan was to point south—North Dakota and beyond—and see what a Manitoba kid could do outside his own backyard. Two weeks and well over $20,000 later, the answer is looking like plenty.

That has changed the math. With some Calgary money in his pocket and a horse he cannot bring himself to get off of, Dunham is rethinking how hard he pushes the rest of the summer.

“I think with this week I think I should try it on, try to go to some more bigger rodeos, try to get better checks,” Dunham said.