Colby Lovell Gets Third Riata Win on Home-Raised ‘Royal Underdog’; Ty Arnold Claims First Title on ‘Sugga Boom Boom’
Chelsea Shaffer6 hours ago
Colby Lovell still has a picture of the contract on his phone. He and Kaleb Driggers wrote it up in a truck at the ProRodeo in Caldwell, Idaho, and signed it over Metallic Payday, the then 4-year-old gray stud Lovell bought as a yearling.
Full Riata Championship Results
The colts Lovell raised before that contract are the ones paying him now.
Lovell, of Midway, Texas, rode one of them, Royal Underdog, to the Riata Pro Futurity title Sept. 23 at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Oklahoma, with Midway neighbor Ty Arnold heeling on Sugga Boom Boom. The team was 34.82 seconds on five head, 2.49 seconds clear of Brayden Schmidt and Jeremy Buhler, and collected the $100,000 first-place check.
Both horses are grandsons of Metallic Cat. Royal Underdog is by Metallic Payday, the 2023 American Rope Horse Futurity Association Reserve World Champion Heel Horse Driggers now stands, out of Crowns Royal Ransom by Crownroyal Frenchman. Kassidy Jones Lovell bred and owns him. Sugga Boom Boom is by Metallic Boom, a 2013 red roan son of Metallic Cat out of Peptocandy owned by DeCordova Cattle Co., and out of Suga Smacks by Kit Kat Sugar. Justin Henson bred him and is listed as his owner.
It is not Lovell’s first Riata win. He and Dakota Kirchenschlager won the inaugural Riata Pro Futurity average in 2022 on a horse owned by NCHA trainer TJ Good. Then, he won the #14.5 heeling in 2023 on the Theorem Ranch-owned stud Pepinstep—a horse he now represents at Theorem.
Lovell spins the short round steer on Royal Underdog. | TRJ File Photo
The Lovells’ Crowns Royal Ransom has been in the family since she was a 3-year-old.
“My wife has owned his mother since she was 3 years old,” Lovell said. “She’s 20 now. She’s done great for us. And Metallic Payday, I bought him as a yearling. Got to raise, breed, be the breeder of five or six, seven horses that have done good this last year, so the last two years, so good to be a part of something like that, and for my wife get to enjoy it. We put the time in as a breeder that a lot of team ropers don’t get to see what that means when you’re sitting at home and you say, dang, remember when that horse was born? I remember Kollin’s horse, KND Metallic Samuel, when he was born. I remember him come walking up. I told my wife, I say, it looks like a German shepherd. You know, you could just see the stop in him immediately. You know, and it helps you build your program, the foundation around you, and it teaches you early.”
That horse is KND Metallic Samuel, Kollin Von Ahn’s mount out of Senioritas Awkan by Senioritas Playboy and the first Metallic Payday son to hit the show pen.
Lovell started Metallic Payday in the heeling, and the horse went on to a top-four finish at the Bob Feist Invitational under Kirchenschlager in 2024. Lovell said he knew early what he had.
“You know, he comes from a proven bloodline, top and bottom. He was great minded, but he’s fast footed, though. One thing that was so good about him in early age, he could move his feet so fast and he was so clean with his front end and he had a big stop. Yeah, he kind of checked all the boxes you’re looking for coming into it, three-year-old year, you know. And he was great minded. I mean, to see what he’s been able to do, and what I thought he could be able to do, and to be able to breed, not to take away from the mares that he did breed, because the one horse that I rode today, his mother is outstanding mare. But the other five or six mares were just horses. So they probably didn’t cost over $3,500. So I probably had $10,000 wrapped up in the mares. Not to take away from those mares. But it really made Payday—it complemented what he’s going to do as a producer.”
“I never thought I was going to sell him, so I tell people I needed to know pretty quick to be able to play in that game as a breeder and to stand a stud. I needed my horse to tell me, hey, I’m gonna do my work. I’m gonna do my job. Just get me where I need to be. And when Kaleb came along, you know, he put so much, I guess you could say confidence from what I was telling him, and I love to see him reap from what we started. I looked the other night. I was looking through my phone and I saw the contract that I wrote up in the truck in Caldwell, Idaho, me and Kaleb. And I signed it and he signed it, to look this far back to where they are now. Pretty cool.”
The Heel Horse
Arnold’s Sugga Boom Boom getting into his short round stop to win $100K. | TRJ File Photo
Arnold didn’t raise Sugga Boom Boom. His friend Justin Henson did, breeding his mare Suga Smacks to the DeCordovas’ stud.
“Justin had his mama,” Arnold said. “The DeCordovas there in Buffalo [Texas], they have his daddy, Metallic Boom, and Justin bred that mare to him, raised him, got him started. And I think he rode him till he was 3 and then I got him after that. I went to roping on him. I’m using him every day and put him through the wringer.”
Arnold keeps about seven outside horses and four or five of his own. He hasn’t bred any, but his grandfather has, and the line runs back to the same stud.
“My granddad’s bred some,” Arnold said. “He actually bred some mares to Payday a couple years ago, and Driggers has some of them colts out of them, and they’ve done good, but I haven’t bred any of my own.”
The Short Round
Arnold said nerves never entered into the last steer.
“The only thing crossed my mind is make sure I stay good and got out of the box good, and then I know he was going to set him up, give me a chance,” Arnold said.
The steer tested them.
“He just let off. He was running, and I think he felt that Ty and I were both [yaying]. We both got good starts and we were gaining on him and he just kind of acted lost there for a second. Stayed true, stayed straight, so it all worked out. Ty did a great job. He roped outstanding all day. I mean, he has all year,” Lovell said.
“Day in and day out, I’ve watched the growth of that, and I’m privileged to be a part of it, and he’s big time, and now you get to see. I mean, it’s proof’s in the pudding every time if I do my job, I complete the course.”
Arnold took the praise in stride.
“I don’t know, it’s nice. It’s always great to hear, but it’s just a blessing to be able to hear and be a part of it. That’s all it is. Thankful to do it.”
The Standard
Lovell said he learned what a stud should be from being around Kenny Patterson as a young man and from the first stud he built something with.
“When I was young, when I was around Kenny Patterson a little bit, pretty good bit, and then I got to watch him show and be around J Bar Fletch, and to watch that stud demeanor 24/7, and that horse never cared about another horse,” Lovell said. “How athletic, locomotive he was, but didn’t care if anything, he didn’t care, didn’t matter. To watch the first stud that I actually built something with was a paint stud that Kory Koontz rode to the NFR, and that horse taught me a lot. And so, going from two horses, being around two great horses like that, and their demeanor being so great, you could load them in the gooseneck trailer. You could load them next to other horses. When you called on them, they would rise to the occasion, then they would let off when you went out the arena. Kids could ride them.”
“I guess at an early age, I learned the standards of what it took to have a gentleman around, and that ability, and I’m just trying to mimic that every time, and if I see something that I think has greatness in them, I don’t care if it puts me under starting. I don’t care what it costs. I’m gonna get that horse because it’s not up to the horse. It’s up to me. And if I do my job and I do it respectfully, that horse is gonna rise to the occasion. So many people nowadays have so many horses, and they blame it on the horse, instead of pointing the finger back at ourselves, and saying, I did a bad job somewhere … And it’s not how many numbers you ride, it’s how many numbers you show up with.”
Practice Pen Partners
The two rope at Lovell’s place when Arnold can get there. Lovell rarely leaves home.
“We have not as much as I’d like to, but yeah, we do get to rope whenever I can, and I know he’s out, he’s in his arena all day, so anytime that I can, I go over there and rope with him and just try to do my part, because I know he’s gonna do his,” Arnold said. “He’s done enough for himself where he deserves to be there and get to do what he does.”
“I need Ty,” Lovell said. “He’s gonna make me rise to the occasion. No different than all of the people you roped with that are at an open level. Be in the practice arena, you’re gonna feed off each other and rise to the occasion, and your horses are gonna feed off each other, rise to the occasion. I mean, it’s just black and white.”
Cutting Colts
Lovell—who now works with Theorem Ranch, owners of Riata sires Stevie Rey Von, SEVS Judgement Day and Pepinstep—has ridden fewer rope horses this summer. He bought six cutting colts to push himself as an all-around hand, with an eye toward handing one to a top trainer.
“I bought six cutting colts, great-bred colts, to try to improve myself as an all-around hand and maybe rise to the occasion in some spots to be able to put one of my colts with one of the top trainers, or a couple,” Lovell explained. “You know, I like that kind of pressure because it makes me get up. I have to have something that makes me want to grind, and I like the barrel being pointed at me, and I’ve always been like that. Those colts have helped me and they’ve taught me so much.”
He’s been hauling to Weatherford, Texas, for help from cutting and cow horse trainers, and after the interview he was headed to TJ Good’s to ride a colt.
“I want to be a part of the equine industry,” Lovell said. “I don’t want to be with a rope in my hand, with a tie down, sitting here. Now, when it comes that time, I want to be able to rise to the occasion, but I also would like to stick myself in different disciplines where you don’t have to leave, you don’t have to go as much, and I can put a foundation on 2-year-olds that maybe it’ll adapt to some of the top horse trainers.”
2026 RIATA PRO FUTURITY AVERAGE
Results are unofficial and do not reflect stallion payout or first nominator payout.
