Tate Kirchenschlager notched yet another win aboard DCC Fools Gold at the Gold Buckle Futurities Spring Event, claiming the 6-and-Under Heading Maturity title worth $20,500, including two go-round wins.

Kirchenschlager also won second on A Painted Sunshine, the 2023 ARHFA World Champion head horse, worth $6,500 plus another $1,000 for a first-round win.

DCC Fools Gold is a 2019 gelding by Metallic Echo out of DCC Smooth Sugar by CJ Goldrush, and he’s been in Kirchenschlager’s program since the winter of 2023. Coming off the Dasco Cattle Co. ranch in New Mexico, the horse already had the right buttons from all the outside riding he’d had, so the transition to show horse has been an easy one.

“This horse has been chipping along, he just hasn’t caught a break to win first,” Kirchenschlager said. “He was in the top three after the first two at Scottsdale and we had a no-time, and we missed one at Houston. But we did good at Ardmore, and we got lucky again this weekend.”

The horse scored a 905.56 on four head to win the roping with NFR heeler and now full-time rope-horse helper Brock Hanson on the feet.

“He did a good job setting those steers up for Brock to heel them,” Kirchenschlager said. “Those steers were big and physical. That horse likes to get on his butt and pull the steers around, so this set up fit him. He’s a physical horse, and he wants the weight of the steer on the end of the rope. In practice, we do a lot of breakawaying to keep him listening to me and waiting because he’s craving that hit and pull.”

The Gold Buckle Futurities 2024Spring Event nearly doubled DCC Fools Gold’s earnings, as he’d had $28,621 in QData rolling into the weekend. Gold Buckle and Southern Ranches added an extra $10,000 bonus to first place in each class, helping the payout standout.

The Team Roping Journal
by Chelsea Shaffer
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