AR Metallic Man crossed the $100,000 career-earnings mark with a $31,195 payday at the Gold Buckle Futurities Spring Showdown in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
The 2020 Metallic Cat son and two-time PRCA World Champion Kollin VonAhn turned in a 914.83 on four head to win the 6 & Under Heeling and push the gelding’s career total to $116,024.
AR Metallic Man went into the Spring Showdown with $84,829 won, anchored by 2026 wins at the ARHFA Arizona Sun Circuit ($30,160) and the Old West Rodeo For A Cause ($10,000), plus a seventh-place finish at the ARHFA Old West Guthrie Event for $7,495. His 2025 ledger included third at the Riata for $29,566, fifth at the Royal Crown in Rapid City for $3,608 and a $4,000 check at ARHFA Old West.
“He really didn’t have a lot of luck last year,” VonAhn said. “I knew he was a good horse, but it was just like, you unlucky sucker. And then this year it’s been the complete opposite. He’s been doing good, and the dominoes have fallen my direction.”
The milestone also marked another major rope horse achievement for Metallic Cat, whose owner, Bobby Patton, said the stallion’s influence in the rope horse industry continues to grow.
“As Metallic Cat’s legacy continues to unfold as a sire in show pens everywhere, one thing we never saw coming was his dominance in the rope horse pen,” Patton said. “Many people may not realize that Metallic Cat’s all-time leading money earner is a rope horse, Marked Up Cat. This weekend, we celebrated another major milestone as Ar Metallic Man, ridden by Kollin VonAhn at the Gold Buckle Futurities Spring Show, surpassed $100,000 in lifetime earnings. We could not be prouder.”
Happy Accident
AR Metallic Man came to VonAhn’s program through a deal that wasn’t supposed to be.
“That horse was sold at the Triangle Sale, and Cooper Smith, a good friend of mine, actually bought the horse,” VonAhn said. “A few days later he was supposed to go to Kaleb Driggers to be a head horse. I hauled him down to Kaleb’s and when I got there he said, ‘Man, I don’t think he’s big enough.’ So I took him back home with me and rode him. He was too good of a horse not to keep.”
VonAhn kept the gelding about a month before paying Smith a dime, then bought him outright after Smith called to ask what he was doing with the horse.
“I hated to buy him because he was already a 5-year-old,” VonAhn said. “He wasn’t ready, but he was too good of a horse to not keep. So, then I was like, heck, I’ll just buy him. I turned him out with the 4-year-olds that were more ready, and I started on him then.”
With the gelding still catching up physically and mentally, VonAhn rolled him into the 4-year-old crop a year late and treated his 5-year-old year as a true 4-year-old debut in the 6-&-Under class.
Helping Hand
After their big win in the 6-&-Under Heeling, VonAhn brought him out to help on him in the Limited Heading, a vote of confidence in a horse that has the temperament to handle anything thrown his way.
“I’ve helped on him quite a bit, and that’s just one of the cool things about him,” VonAhn said. “He doesn’t get rattled about much. And honestly, usually the more you run, the better he gets.”
VonAhn recently partnered on the gelding with Chris Pomeroy of Missouri, in a phased handoff. Pomeroy will take the reins at select shows through the back half of 2026 while VonAhn continues to get the gelding solid, then take him over completely in 2027.
“I just know that he’s going to be a nice horse, he just needs the rest of this year to really blossom,” VonAhn said. “Chris told me he would partner on him with me however, but I really didn’t want to lose out on showing him the rest of this year.”
The Team Roping Journal
by Hannah Wheeler
View article on TRJ
