Shad Mayfield tied three calves in 30.0 seconds to win the 2026 Pendleton Round-Up, banking $10,546 aboard Figure To Fly “Lollipop”—his 2024 AQHA Tie-Down Horse of the Year—on the fabled Green Mile to all but lock up his eighth trip to the National Finals Rodeo.
It was a bucket-list win, and it came at the exact moment the two-time PRCA World Champion needed one. Like his California Rodeo Salinas title earlier this summer, Pendleton landed in the middle of a planes-trains-and-automobiles stretch that had Mayfield chartering across the West, running two rigs and scattering his string from rodeo to rodeo in the final scramble to the top 15.
The Best Horse for the Grass
“It was awesome to get that win, I felt like it was what I needed at the moment,” Mayfield said. “I had a lot of confidence going in there, just being on Lollipop, because last time I rode her there, I won both rounds on her. And the time before that, Andrew Burks won second on her there. So she’s amazing on the grass. I feel like she’s the best horse on the grass.”
That confidence didn’t come without a second thought. The Pendleton grass has a reputation for turning good runs sideways, and Mayfield had promised himself the last time he rode her that he wouldn’t ask Lollipop to do it again unless he had no other option.
“I told myself last time I rode her there, I said I’d never ride her there again unless I absolutely had to. And here we are, I absolutely had to,” Mayfield said. “I knew I was going to be able to trust in her because of the way she stops—I don’t think there’s another horse that would stop like she does no matter where she is in the arena. She just uses her front end a little bit versus just using all her butt, allowing her to not slide too much. She just fits that setup. Especially after the first round, seeing her work, I’m like, ‘Yeah, she knows how to take care of herself on the grass.’ I had a lot of trust in her, and it paid off.”
It paid off through a first-round 10.5 and a second-round 11.1 on a calf that left and ran—the kind of start that makes a lot of guys pull-up.
“That second round is kind of the round you got to look out for, whether you’re gonna pull up, because you don’t know the calf,” Mayfield said. “We had a runner in round two. I was a little late, and Lollipop did her deal and made another just smart, good run.”
Off the Barrier
Knowing Trevor Hale had everyone by a few seconds in the average, Mayfield left the box in the final round with no interest in forcing a run.
“I was basically saying, ‘I’m not even going to go out here and try to win first, I just want to be off the barrier,'” Mayfield said. “I knew all the short-round calves were good, so I just wanted to be off the barrier and make the best run I could. And that was being 8.4, which I feel like is a pretty good run there at Pendleton. It kind of fell into place. I’ll take it, for sure.”
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
The 8.4 won the short round and gave him a 30.0 aggregate to win the average, and none of it happens, Mayfield said, without the people hauling, driving and flying alongside him. The stretch that ended at Pendleton started with an all-night haul from St. George to Albuquerque, a 4:30 a.m. arrival back home in Texas, two hours of roping in the dark and a 10 a.m. departure for Oregon.
“We had two rigs out there, so we ended up driving both rigs back home. Dez was in one, I was in the other,” Mayfield said. “We got home at 4:30 and turned on the lights and roped from about 5:00 to 7:00, then got stuff ready and took off to Pendleton at 10:00. Sending horses everywhere and flying from rig to rig, it’s been a lot of miles, and we’re definitely tired. But I’ve had the right people. You gotta have people to help you, and I’ve had a lot of people step up here at the end of the season.”
Platinum Answers the Call
One of the horses carrying that load is a gelding Mayfield doesn’t even own anymore. He sold Lil Squaller, “Platinum,” to Joseph Parsons, but with Lollipop carrying an extra heavy load and Popular Snow Resort “Tootsie Pop” working back from injury, Mayfield picked up the phone.
“Lollipop’s been tired, and it seemed like the tireder she got, the stronger she got. At the end here we’re running good calves that just didn’t need that strong of a horse,” Mayfield said. “That’s when Joseph told me if I ever needed him, just call him. I called him and said, ‘Hey man, I need a horse I could turn these calves around on and just make it easy. Lollipop needs a break.’ Just like that, I trusted in him and rode him at Walla Walla, and I placed there, and that kind of turned things around.”
Mayfield credits Platinum with helping him back to (hopefully) another finals, and he lined him up for the softer, Jersey-cross set of calves waiting at Sioux Falls.
All But Locked on Vegas
The Pendleton average check pushed Mayfield safely inside the top 15 with the regular season nearing a close, and a Puyallup semifinal seed already has him bound for the Governor’s Cup in Sioux Falls—an arena where he always seems to have good luck.
For a cowboy who’s spent the last month flying rig to rig on next to no sleep, the Pendleton Round-Up win finally bought him something he hasn’t had all season—room to breathe.