Ryland Pintar went 6.9 on three head to win the Wilderness Circuit Finals breakaway average in Heber City, Utah, Nov. 6-7, punching her ticket to the 2027 NFR Open.
Pintar placed in all three rounds, won the average by a full second over Bradi Good and earned $9,819 aboard LDR Flits Cash—“Fergie”—the mare she got as a yearling. The finals money moved her from No. 6 to an unofficial No. 4 in the circuit’s year-end standings with $30,515, behind Josie Conner, Bradi Good and Rickie Engesser.
It was Pintar’s fourth circuit finals. She finished second in the average at her first one and hadn’t had much luck since. This year, she and her husband, Chase, had just bought a place in Arizona, and she spent the weeks before Heber City cleaning up and getting set up there. Then it rained.
“To be honest, I did almost no preparation. My mare Fergie had run maybe two calves since Othello, Washington, and I didn’t get to rope. So, I had absolutely no expectations. It was really just God’s timing and that’s the way it worked out, which I’m very thankful for.”
Round-by-round
For a cowgirl who ropes on five or six head a day training horses, it was an unfamiliar way to back into the box.
“To say that I was confident going in the first round would probably be a lie. I’m used to roping a lot, practicing a lot … I didn’t feel prepared, to be honest, but my mare, she, in my opinion, is pretty amazing and I knew she’d do her job.”
That did not show. Pintar stopped the clock at 2.5 on walking fresh calves to win Round 1 and $2,534.
“Fergie let me score as long as she allowed, and I laid the barrier back, and it was just enough.”
Round 2 nearly came apart in the chute. Pintar’s calf hit the front and wrung his tail, and she figured he’d run. By the time she turned around in the box, he’d flipped himself upside down. The crew opened the front of the chute, and with the calf three-quarters of the way out, a handful of guys pushed him back in.
“Britt Bedke was pushing my calf and he says, ‘Just so you know, he’s really out of air,’ and I look at him and sure enough, he was panting just like a dog.”
She waited on the tired calf as long as she could.
“I thought for sure I got the barrier, but I don’t think I could have been a millimeter closer.”
She was clean, and the 2.2 was second in the round, worth $1,900.
Pintar went 2.2 again in Round 3 to split second and third with Zoie Bedke for $1,584, and to take the $3,801 average check. It was the run she liked best.
“That was probably the most smooth-feeling run of the weekend for sure. It didn’t feel quite so out of control.”
Horsepower
Pintar got Fergie from family friends who raised colts. Pintar was 14, the mare was a yearling, and she was the one nobody would buy.
“She was extremely tall and lanky, and she is a big mare, and she wasn’t very cute for sure, and she was wild.”
It took the two of them a while to get along.
“She’s absolutely changed my life.”
Walking fresh cattle are usually a job for Pintar’s other mare, a buckskin registered as Sweet Dakota Joe and called Dixie, whom she bought unstarted at 6 for $2,000. Dixie stayed home because Pintar didn’t know the calves would be walking fresh. Fergie handled it anyway.
“She’s not the prettiest scorer ever, but anyways, she dang sure did her job and she makes it easy for me. She’s really fast and reads the play really, really good.”
The two mares are the foundation of Running P Performance Horses, the business Pintar runs with Chase. She trains the breakaway horses, and he trains the team roping horses.
“I’ve had several opportunities to sell Fergie and Dixie, but like I said, they kind of are the reason we started the business in the first place and I can’t do it.”
Chase is also the reason Pintar spent last summer on the road. When Macy Young called in the spring and asked her to haul along, Pintar turned her down. She didn’t want to be gone for four months.
“I hung up the phone and my husband Chase, he says, ‘You can call her back now, or you can call her back later, but you need to go. Those mares are too good, and this might be your only opportunity.’”
She went and made all but a couple of the Wilderness Circuit rodeos along the way. When she told Chase she didn’t want to go to the finals with a fresh horse and no practice, he gave her the same push.
Next summer will be her first trip to the NFR Open in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“I’m excited for the opportunity to be there and see how it goes. Hopefully try the no expectations thing again and see if that works.”
