Taylor Jane-Gardner won the Montana Circuit Finals average in Great Falls with a three-head total of 39.38 seconds aboard A Frenchmans Ledoux.
The 2014 sorrel stallion isn’t just a rodeo horse. He’s been hauled to amateur rodeos, pro rodeos and futurities, roped off of, shown and used outside. The week before the Finals, he was moving cattle.
“He was so happy to go and move bulls,” Gardner said. “He was wanting to bite them and shaking his head—just happy to be doing cowboy work.”
That kind of horse held up across three runs in Great Falls. Gardner was fourth in Round 1 with a 13.05, came back to win Round 2 with a 13.08 worth $2,937, and stayed consistent through the final round to secure the average.
Gardner didn’t rodeo the full Montana Circuit season. Deep into the summer run with just 21 rodeos left on the schedule, she made a push to qualify, entering nearly everything she could to get inside the Top 12.
“I have never rodeoed that hard in my whole entire life,” she said. “All-night drives. The girls thought I was crazy.”
That stretch got her to her first Circuit Finals.
In Great Falls, she didn’t change much. The setup is one of the more technical in the circuit, but Gardner kept it simple.
“My go in there was I jumped on him bareback in a halter, walked him around once each way, and left,” she said. “He knows his job.”
She stayed instead of putting him away.
“My boyfriend said, ‘What if you win and you’re not here for your victory lap?’” Gardner said. “I thought, that would be horrible.”
“I wouldn’t even take my coat off. I didn’t want to jinx it. There was a slim chance I was actually going to win it.”
When it held, it took a second.
“I couldn’t believe it.”
Gardner bought “Ledoux” as a long yearling out of Alberta. The son of Frenchmans Guy out of Sierras Six Moons has turned into a horse that fits how she rides—versatile, broke and consistent.
“He’s just so honest,” Gardner said. “If I stay out of his way and support him, he’s going to take me to the right spot every single time.”
While Gardner won the Finals, Ashley Day handled the Montana Circuit season.
The Volborg, Montana, cowgirl entered Great Falls ranked No. 1 with more than $25,000 earned and held her ground, placing in two rounds to secure the year-end title.
Day rode Flash N Dynamite “Pearl,” a 2015 buckskin gelding by First Moonflash out of Ima Dyno Doc Tari by Dyno Doc Tari. The Montana-bred gelding was also named the Circuit’s Barrel Horse of the Year.
Great Falls, Mont., Jan. 15-17
Place | Name | Time | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | First round: 1. Tayla Moeykens | 12.66 seconds | $2,937 |
2 | Heather Crowley | 12.77 | $2,203 |
3 | Cadee Williams | 12.89 | $1,468 |
4 | Taylor Gardner, 13.05, $734. Second round: 1. Taylor Gardner | 13.08 seconds | $2,937 |
2 | Ashley Day and Lisa Warfield | 13.15 | $1,836 |
4 | Brittney Cox, 13.54, $734. Third round: 1. Tayla Moeykens | 12.75 seconds | $2,937 |
2 | Heather Crowley | 12.91 | $2,203 |
3 | Ashley Day | 12.99 | $1,468 |
2 | Lisa Warfield | 39.75 | $3,304 |
3 | Brittney Cox | 40.58 | $2,203 |
4 | Ashley Schad | 41.11 | $1,101 |
1 | Ashley Day | Volborg, MT | $28,587.77 | 22 |
2 | Heather Crowley | Poplar, MT | $22,605.11 | 27 |
3 | Tayla Moeykens | Three Forks, MT | $21,394.57 | 16 |
4 | Taylor-Jane Gardner | Purple Springs, AB | $16,898.15 | 25 |
5 | Lisa Warfield | Helena, MT | $15,802.14 | 32 |
6 | Ashley Schad | Whitefish, MT | $12,817.92 | 21 |
7 | Becky Fuson | Conrad, MT | $11,016.01 | 26 |
8 | Brittney Cox | Chinook, MT | $10,864.33 | 20 |
9 | Cadee Williams | Big Timber, MT | $10,503.88 | 21 |
10 | Abby Knight | Charlo, MT | $8,752.65 | 23 |
11 | Bailee Murnion | Kinsey, MT | $8,461.44 | 26 |
12 | Valee Miller | Billings, MT | $7,295.88 | 24 |
13 | Billie Schaff (R) | Billings, MT | $7,117.68 | 22 |
14 | Tammy Carpenter | Kalispell, MT | $5,846.93 | 28 |
15 | Tisha Larsen | Forsyth, MT | $5,497.51 | 17 |
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