Macy Young went 7.8 on three head to win the Turquoise Circuit Finals breakaway average in Cave Creek, Arizona, Nov. 5-7, punching her ticket back to the NFR Open.
Young placed third in every round—2.7, 2.7 and 2.4—and was the only cowgirl in the field to place in all three. She and Shacie Marr were the only two to catch all three calves, and Young’s 7.8 beat Marr’s 9.2 by 1.4 seconds.
The three round checks and the $3,328 average check added up to $6,655 on the weekend.
Young came to Cave Creek No. 6 in the circuit with $6,646. Her finals money unofficially doubles that to $13,301 and moves her up four spots to No. 2, behind year-end champion Danielle Lowman’s $16,878.
The Breakdown
Young had been close in Cave Creek before. Each of the last two years, she had a shot at the circuit title and the average, and each time, the third calf got away.
“I was just roping calf for calf, trying not to make a mistake, but just catch them,” she said. “And the last two years I’ve been there, I had a chance to win the circuit and the average, and I’ve missed the third calf two years prior. So I was just really trying not to do that again.”
She went in mostly blind on the cattle. The rest of the field roped through the calves Thursday morning, but Young didn’t make it over.
She read the notes and texted Kaydin Finan about her draw.
“There was definitely a strong end and a softer end of them,” she said. “But by the third day, I mean, they were all pretty good. As a whole, I mean, you’re not going to have the same calf for everybody. It’s just you get what you get.”
The arena itself was rebuilt everywhere but the boxes. The box ran a little long and the start was short—“like ear tag,” Young said. Her husband, Chris, team roped first and came back thinking the box felt tight.
“And I was like, ‘Man though, they look the exact same as before.’ And then I got in there and I was like, ‘Yeah, these are the exact same.’”
Young didn’t come in with many reps, either. She practiced four times at home after getting back in September, only once on her good horse. Then five inches of rain hit the week before the finals, and she didn’t rope at all.
Close to Home
Cave Creek is about as close to home as a rodeo gets for Young.
“My favorite rodeo is Cave Creek. I’ve won that rodeo three times and it’s 45 minutes from my house.”
Prescott, where she has placed second, is the other circuit rodeo she likes. Geography shapes the rest.
The winter circuit rodeos run about 45 minutes from home at the farthest, but they land on top of the Texas winter run. A couple of times, Young has flown home to rope at a circuit rodeo, then flown back to Texas. She went to 10 circuit rodeos this year.
“I do try to prioritize it because we really don’t have to knock out that many rodeos like some other circuits.”
Horsepower
Young won the average on Mister Judge Boomer, the bay gelding her family bred and she raised. He’s by The Dualler and out of a barrel mare by Judge Cash, and he started out as a barrel horse before he became a breakaway horse. Young also rode him to the 2025 Clovis Rodeo breakaway title.
Asked what made Boomer the call for this setup, Young kept it short.
“That he is my only one I have.”
Young spent part of this summer hauling with Ryland Pintar, who won the Wilderness Circuit Finals breakaway average in Heber City, Utah, the same weekend. Both cowgirls are headed to Colorado Springs.
Back to the NFR Open
The win sends Young back to the NFR Open in Colorado Springs, Colorado, next summer.
“It’s a good opportunity because it’s not everybody who’s in the top 15, it’s a rodeo that not everybody gets to go to. So it’s an opportunity if you are trying to get in the top 15 to gather up some money and not have to rope against every girl that’s out there chasing the top 15 as well.”
She was in and out fast this year and wants to slow down and take more of it in next time.
“It’s a really cool rodeo. They do a really good job of putting it on. And so I’m glad I get to go back and hopefully they have that huge sand pile for my kid to play on again.”
