Haven Meged made all the noise in Calgary, but right alongside him was 25-year-old NFR Louisiana calf roper Macon Murphy, whose horse, Julian, was never supposed to get back on the end of a rope again.
Julian had been sidelined an entire year with a broken bone in his left hind leg. And Murphy decided to crack him back out for the summer at Calgary. Together, they went 7.5, 7.8 and then 7.1 in the finals to take a cool $27,667 out of Calgary.
The Murphy family picked up Julian, who stands nowhere near 14 hands, when Macon was in high school. After spending his senior year seasoning the horse, Macon rode Julian to win the 2021 College National Finals Rodeo and then to qualify for the 2022 NFR.
Julian’s “Rocky Balboa” Comeback
But over the 2023 July Fourth run, Murphy won about $9,000 out of Prescott, Arizona, before missing a calf at Oakley, Utah. He hauled Julian from there to Livingston, Montana, and unloaded him to find his horse surprisingly three-legged lame. Murphy had a buddy drop him at a vet clinic in Montana to clean out at what he reckoned was an abscess.
“The vet called me, so I asked him if he got the abscess to break,” Murphy recalled. “There was a five-second delay. Then he told me the horse actually had a fractured sesamoid. He said, ‘He’s done.’ And I said, ‘You mean for the summer?’ And he said, ‘No, he’s done.’”
Murphy sent Julian all the way to Okeechobee, Florida, to his girlfriend, Katie McKay, who operates an equine rehab program called Wonders Wellness. The two of them were just hoping to get Julian sound enough to live his life in a pasture.
“I worked with Dr. Nate Lea of Outlaw Equine and we came up with a plan,” said McKay. “The Montana vet had suggested we turn the horse out for a year. But I had farriers apply a Freedom shoe, we injected him with Renovo, I did shockwave treatments and Magnawave twice a week. He was probably in a stall about five months and slowly began getting cleared to walk and trot. It was amazing to see his progress, after we’d just hoped to make him pasture-sound.”
Finally, McKay started legging Julian up in February, and by May he was cleared to work.
“The Renovo injections were huge,” McKay said. “And the continuing laser treatments that keep that leg strong. I just purchased an Equiscope, which will be a big part of my business.”
No one outside a veterinarian has more equine healthcare knowledge than a barrel racer, undoubtedly. And McKay had already rehabbed a few of her own barrel horses back from supposed career-ending injuries, which kick-started her business.
A glimmer of hope for Julian
Once Julian was in shape, Murphy literally only ran two calves on him. One with a breakaway. And one with a knot rope but no jerk line. The tiny horse ran out there and “drug it,” he said. And Murphy started to get excited.
“He’s been outstanding,” Murphy said of his dirty-tough little horse. “It’s good to have him back. He never does anything wrong. He scores, runs, stops and pulls every single time. And he always takes care of himself – he won’t take a bad hit. If a calf steps right, a lot of horses won’t follow, then they get jerked out of their stop. But Julian, even if I’ve already stepped off and a calf changes direction, he’ll pivot and get where he’s straight. Some things you can’t train, and that’s one of them. He’s super smart.”
Even now, Murphy can’t tell you the last time he ran a practice calf on Julian.
“You can go to 20 rodeos in a row, and this horse won’t get short, won’t get tight, won’t take your throw away, won’t quarter,” he said. “He just knows. I never have to tune on him. Just load him in the trailer and go.”
Murphy estimates he hasn’t chased 15 practice calves on Julian in the past five years. He literally just exercises the little dynamo and puts him on a walker. He said he might ride him in the box now and then just to watch Julian pout, like the horse is asking, “You’re going to practice on me? Seriously?”
Macon and his dad, KC Murphy, trained Julian and have a handful more young horses at the house they’re training. The only silver lining in losing his best horse for a year was that Murphy’s backup had to step up to the plate.
The dark brown 10-year-old he calls Wes got the nod all this winter, and is big-boned enough to take the hits that he doesn’t want to put on Julian. With the two of them, plus another promising 5-year-old, in the trailer and a ranking back inside the Top 15, Murphy looks ready for another trip to Las Vegas.
