Torres Brothers Missing Main Mounts

The Torres Brothers—Joshua and Jonathan—have consistently been Top-30 team ropers in recent years.

- Kendra Santos

This 2019 rodeo season has been no exception, but there have been horse-related curveballs to contend with. This month, we’ll talk about where Joshua’s ace head horse, the 9-year-old dun he calls Junior, has been and when he’s due back. Next month, we’ll move over to the heeling side and focus on Jonathan’s bay Biggie, who at 13 is also MIA since being kicked in the warmup arena at the Reno Rodeo in June.

A year ago this month, Joshua and Jonathan Torres were ranked 15 th in the world and seemingly on the brink of qualifying for their first Wrangler National Finals Rodeo. They’d been rodeoing up in the Northwest, when Joshua missed the books for the Pendleton (Oregon) Round-Up. When they left the Lewiston (Idaho) Roundup and headed toward Texas, they stopped and spent the night at the fairgrounds in Tremonton, Utah.

“When we got up the next morning, Junior’s right hind hock was swelled up and he had a baby puncture on it,” said Joshua, the big brother and heading half of the team that was born and raised in Miami, Florida. “He wasn’t that lame on it, so I ran water on it and gave him some Bute and Dex to keep him comfortable. I didn’t think it was that big a deal. We were headed to Albuquerque (New Mexico), and I was planning on riding him there. We loaded up and kept driving.

“Within two or three days, Junior’s hock was a lot more swollen and had really heated up. By then, he was getting pretty sore. So we dropped him off at Josh Harvey’s (Outlaw Equine Hospital and Rehabilitation Center) in Decatur (Texas). Clay Smith let me pick up the dun horse he’s ridden at the NFR that he calls Jazz, and I rode him at four or five rodeos to finish out the year. Cory Kidd also let me ride his horse at (the rodeo in) Stephenville.”

According to Dr. Harvey, they got Junior there just in time.