At 7 years old, saddle bronc horse Heavy Feathers is just getting started with his pro rodeo career.
And what a start it is.
In his second year on the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association trail, Heavy Feathers has trotted off with an honor only a handful of bucking horses ever achieve.
The cowboys who risk their lives riding rough stock have officially voted him PRCA Saddle Bronc Horse of the Year, in the 2026 Pendleton Whisky’s Let ‘er Buck Bucking Stock of the Year Awards.
It’s like a huge, flashy ostrich feather in the cap for Centennial-based Summit Pro Rodeo, which owns the horse. And it’s not the only national honor the Centennial rough-stock operation collected this year.
Cowboys also voted Summit’s elite mare Game Trail the second-best bareback horse in the nation.
Both horses will represent Summit at this year’s National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, along with four other horses and two bulls.
“We will have four of the top 40 horses in the nation representing us out there,” Summit Pro Rodeo’s majority owner JD Hamaker told Cowboy State Daily.
Controlled Chaos
Climbing aboard horses of this caliber is an unforgettable experience, bareback rider Bronc Marriott told Cowboy State Daily.
Marriott was matched up with Game Trail for an 89.5-point ride in Idaho during the Ridgeview Pro Rodeo — an event he’d barely gotten into. Thanks to the strong ride, he ended up winning the event championship.
That did a lot to restore his confidence after dealing with injuries the last couple of years, he added.
“Very seldom, in a career, do you get on a horse like that,” Marriott said. “Game Trail is definitely one of a kind. She’s electric. You feel like you’re up in the air for years.”
Marriott watched the mare from the sidelines for years before finally drawing her. He knew she bucked hard. And he knew she gave him a legitimate chance to win the event.
But he admitted even he didn’t know how all that horsepower was going to feel during his 8-second ride.
“Obviously, in pro rodeo everything bucks,” he said. “But not everything bucks that hard. It kind of blows you away how hard they try. These horses are athletes just like we are. They want to buck just as hard as we want to ride good.”
The moment the chute opened, Marriott said there was a quick little scoot out into the arena, followed by immediate electricity and the first jump.
“It feels like in control chaos,” Marriott said. “I don’t know how to explain it any other way.”
But there is one little catch to this kind of flight. Eventually, the cowboy has to come back down to earth.
“She takes care of you,” Marriott said. “But also, if you stub your toe, she’ll plant your head in the ground.”
And when Game Trail manages to win the matchup, Marriott has noticed she’s not shy about celebrating it in her own way.
“She trots around there with her head up high,” he said with a chuckle. “She’s pretty proud of herself if you don’t get off on the pick-up man.”
A Decade In The Making
While Heavy Feathers is younger than Game Trail, the breeding decision that helped produce him dates back more than a decade.
His sire, Harry Feathers, was a stallion Hamaker bought from Three Hills Rodeo in Iowa in 2011. Harry Feathers’s sire was a horse called Harry, which came from Harry Vold.
Three Hills enjoyed tremendous success with that bloodline, and Hamaker hoped the stallion would produce the kind of colts his operation needed.
Heavy Feathers’ sire died a couple of years ago, Hamaker added, right as it was becoming clear just how powerful his genetics truly were.
“It just takes a long time,” Hamaker said. “The horses are 7, 8, 9, 10 years old before you really find out what you’ve got. And if you don’t start breeding them until they’re 4, 5, 6, all of a sudden they’re 16, 17 years old before you really know what you have.”
Rodeo spectators and announcers, too, typically glue their eyes to the cowboys riding the rough stock, but Hamaker views the arena through an entirely different lens.
“We are looking to see how hard they buck,” he said. “We’re not necessarily trying to buck the cowboy off. Whether they buck the guy off or not is irrelevant. If they don’t, what you’d like to see them have is the highest score.”
The Entertainment Business
At the end of the day, the goal is entertainment, Hamaker added.
“The only way we get paid is by selling a ticket,” he said.
Hamaker watches for athletic ability and the desire to perform.
“They have to have the desire to perform,” he said. “So, you’re looking for that. But the reality is, you need to have horses that are user-friendly that the cowboys like.”
If the horses are too wild, sorting them into narrow chutes becomes dangerous. They risk running into fences and injuring themselves before they ever get to the gate.
“You need them gentle enough that they don’t wear themselves out,” Hamaker said.
Hamaker also needs the horses to know when they hear the music and enter the chute that it’s game on.
Horses of this caliber typically buck eight to 12 times a year, Hamaker said.
In between, they get the “best of feeds and don’t have to work much,” he added.
They get massages and things like that, too, if it seems that they have a sore or pulled muscle.
“They have a great life,” Hamaker said. “I mean nothing would be better in life than to come back as a bucking horse.”
Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.
