Shay Carroll won the Pre-Futurity heeling and $21,327 at the 2026 Old West Futurity on Compton—a horse who came to Heber City as the quiet one on both sides of his pedigree and left as the standout.

Compton is by Starey out of Gimme A Cold One, owned by Compton Partners and bred by Bobby E Lewis. He marked an 896.01 to win the title. Before Old West, he had cashed exactly once: a fourth-place finish in the Pre-Futurity heeling at the Oil Can Classic worth $4,201. The Heber win pushed his career earnings to $27,528, with an AQHA Open performance Register of Merit in heeling.

He is the breakout of his family in both directions. His dam, Gimme A Cold One, never earned a dollar in the show pen and has produced eight foals; Compton is her only money-earner. His sire, Starey, has 116 registered foals and 15 money-earners—and Compton’s $27,528 is the most any of them has won. Most of Starey’s get have earned in reined cow horse and ranch classes.

The pedigree leans more to the cow-horse pen than the rope arena. Starey, a 2013 National Reined Cow Horse Association Snaffle Bit Futurity finalist and a multiple-time AQHA World Show heading and heeling qualifier under Bobby Lewis, is by Dual Rey out of a Playgun mare. His get have earned mostly in reined cow horse and ranch classes, which is what makes Compton’s roping breakthrough the outlier.

Carroll didn’t buy the pedigree. He bought the horse.

“I stopped by Bobby Lewis’s after the World Show a couple years ago, and this horse went by and stopped—the very first time I ever saw him stop,” Carroll said. “He was a little rough-looking, but you could tell the athleticism was there. The first thing I did was call Jim and say, ‘I think we found the horse we were looking for.'”

Jim’s answer: “Go get him.”

“When you see an animal like that, you have to buy it,” Carroll said. “He could have been bred by anything — it wouldn’t matter. That horse is his own individual special.”

The name stuck, too. Bobby Lewis’s trainer had called him Compton’s Special as a barn name; the partners liked it enough to keep it, shortened to one word. “He’s kind of gangster,” Carroll said. “He’s got tons of swag.”

It’s also an owner story. Jim and Bonnie Matlack were among the first to put a horse with Carroll when horses were hard to come by.

“They’re not really clients, they’re more like family,” Carroll said. “In the beginning it’s very difficult to find people who believe in you, and these guys believed in me from the start.”

“I trust his judgment — it’s been spot on. Every time I’ve stepped out on my own, I’ve gotten my toes stepped on. His judgment is incredible, and we’re happy to be partners with him.” — Jim Matlack

Carroll expects the horse to outgrow the partnership.

“He’s going to go on to do such great things, and someday we’ll talk about how we owned him at one point.”

Pre-Futurity Heeling — Full Results

Open (average)

Intermediate (average)

Limited (average)

Go-rounds

• Round 1: Hide N Go Seek (Paul Eaves) $4,000 · This Star Is Special (Trevor Brazile) $2,000
• Round 2: Vintage Belair (Andy Holcomb) $4,000 · Compton (Shay Carroll) $2,000

2026 Old West Futurity by the Numbers: Hickory Holly Time, Rhen Richard Cash In; the Million Goes Unclaimed

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