🇨🇦 DASHING HAZE aka “TYSON”

2005 Bay 🇨🇦 CQHA/AQHA Gelding | Owner: 🇨🇦 Curtis Cassidy

3X 🇺🇸 AQHA-PRCA STEER WRESTLING HORSE OF THE YEAR (2020, 2021, 2022)

4X 🇨🇦 2022 CPRA/ CANADIAN HORSE OF THE YEAR (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)

“TYSON” & Curtis Cassidy, CFR.
Photo Credit: Covy Moore | CovyMoore.com

The horse can perform his job multiple times a day with different riders—it makes no difference to Tyson. “That’s the special part about him, it doesn’t matter if it’s me, the guy who trained him, riding him, or if it’s some rookie in his first year rodeoing,” Curtis says. “They can jump on him, he’ll literally turn around and stand and work the same for them as he will for me. That’s probably one of the coolest things about him.”

Dashin Haze is the 2022 Nutrena Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year presented by AQHA

Dashin Haze takes a third Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year title.

By Lane Karney and Kendra Santos | The American Quarter Horse Journal | November 29, 2022

Dashin Haze pulls off a threepeat as steer wrestling horse of the year. (Photo by Bill Lawless)

Professional rodeo cowboys are quick to credit their four-legged counterparts, and AQHA has supported the recognition of pro rodeo’s best timed-event horses for more than 30 years. Canadian Curtis Cassidy’s Dashin Haze, who’s best known as “Tyson,” just pulled off a threepeat as the 2022 Nutrena Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year, presented by AQHA. It’s no coincidence that five of the Top 15 cowboys in the big-man’s event have ridden the notorious brown bomber of bulldogging this season.

“That third win is awfully cool and something I never expected,” says Curtis, an eight-time Wrangler National Finals Rodeo qualifier. “When we started him a long time ago, we could tell the speed was there, he was smart and wanted to be good. But for Tyson to win it three times in a row is a great accomplishment for the horse.

“Willy (Cassidy’s RTR Little Willy, who carried four men to steer wrestling gold buckles and was the 2008 Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year) only won it once.”

Tyson is working hard at the 2022 Wrangler National Finals Rodeo, as he’s serving as the mount for Will Lummus, Kyle Irwin, Rowdy Parrott, J. D. Struxness and Jesse Brown, and Curtis is hazing for them. Through the sixth round, these guys have picked up nearly $250,000 in winnings. But there are four more rounds to go.

Throughout the rodeo season, Tyson was primarily ridden by Curtis, J. D. and Jesse. He was also ridden by Will, Kyle and Rowdy Parrott punch their tickets to rodeo’s Super Bowl. This third win ties Tyson for most Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year honors ever with Larry Ferguson’s Doc Bee Quick (“Doc” won it 1989-91) and Rodney, Jacob and James Burks’ FF Zans A Baron Jack (“Zan” took the title from 2004-06).

Though there is no award for the hazing horse of the year, it’s tough to talk about a steer wrestling horse of this caliber without mentioning his running mate, who helps line every steer.

“That haze horse, ‘Salty’ (registered as Easy Holland), probably has better papers than Tyson,” Curtis says. “At this level, it’s super important to have your bulldogging team equally matched. Ideally, you want the hazing horse a little faster to be able to get up there and shut steers down. A badass haze horse can do so much for the bulldogging horse and really help him shine.”

Now 17 years old, Tyson was a former graded stakes-placed runner in Canada who earned $30,269 on the track. He then became a barrel horse, so he got a relatively late start in his steer wrestling career. While Curtis didn’t start running him by steers until he was 10, Tyson has certainly cemented himself into rodeo’s record books. He’s tough and consistently reliable. In fact, Curtis named the horse after legendary boxer Mike Tyson because of his toughness.

“Tyson is user friendly and so tough,” says Curtis, who calls Donalda, Alberta, home. “That week of San Juan (Capistrano, California), we went from Kennewick and Bremerton (Washington) to an all-night drive to San Juan, then right back to Jesse Brown’s in Baker City (Oregon), where Tyson had one day off before we went to Walla Walla and Ellensburg (Washington) slack, then up to Armstrong (British Columbia) and back down to Ellensburg.

“Tyson spent more days in the trailer than he had days off, then J. D. won Ellensburg on him that Monday (Labor Day). The thing about Tyson is it doesn’t matter if you’re the first guy or the last guy on him that day, he’s going to try his butt off and be good for you.”

“In San Juan Capistrano alone this summer, Tyson delivered six of the top-10 money-earning cowboys to the pay window for $33,253”

While Cassidy, J. D. and Jesse were Tyson’s 2022 mainstays, and this horse helped Will, Kyle and Rowdy all earn another NFR back number, he also provided rides to Curtis’ Canadian countrymen Tanner Milan, Stephen Culling and Ryan Shuckburgh. In San Juan Capistrano alone this summer, Tyson delivered six of the top-10 money-earning cowboys to the pay window for $33,253. J. D, Jesse and Kyle plan to ride Tyson at the NFR in December.

“Tyson is special for how easy he is to ride, too,” Curtis says. “Rowdy, who had never ridden him, got on and won on him at San Juan. When a guy gets on a horse he has never ridden, and he fits like a glove, that is a testament to the horse.”

Tyson was bred by Shady Lane Stables of Leslieville, Alberta, and is by AQHA racing champion Royal Quick Dash, out of Sheza Special Chick by the American Quarter Horse Hall of Famer Chicks Beduino.

The Nutrena Horse of the Year awards, presented by AQHA, are determined by a vote of the top 25 Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association cowboys and Women’s Professional Rodeo Association cowgirls. Clayton Hass’ Be Dun By Three, aka “Benz,” finished second in this year’s voting. Patrionic Dash, who’s best known as “Mable,” owned by Garrett Henry and ridden by Stetson Jorgenson, was third. Benz and Mable are also being ridden by steer wrestlers at the NFR, so their earnings are also continuing to climb.

2022 🇨🇦 Canadian Bred/Owned Horse of The Year: DASHIN HAZE, “TYSON”

DASHIN HAZE, “TYSON” & Curtis Cassidy

Dashin Haze isn’t just any ordinary 15hh gelding, he’s the type of horse they make movies about!

The Alberta bred 2005 brown gelding is by Royal Quick Dash and out of Sheza Special Chick, by Chicks Beduino; as a futurity horse, he made 14 starts on the racetrack, winning four of those races, and placing second in the Grade 3 Alberta Bred Futurity in 2007. “Tyson” earned his breeders and owners Darren and Marilyn Pollitt of Shady Lane Stables in Edmonton, Alberta $30,269 on the track. Today “Tyson” isn’t just any former racehorse that found himself a suitable second career he’s the Canadian Professional Rodeo Association’s Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year, for the third consecutive year, and has helped his cowboys to some of the biggest titles and payouts in the entire steer wrestling sport.

The value of a horse isn’t measured by the dollars he or she brings home alone, but if you own “Tyson,” knowing that he’s won the AQHA 2020 and 2021 AQHA steer wrestling horse of the year and brought pay cheques back to the barn for yourself and a number of other cowboys totaling well over the million mark we’re sure it must make Curtis Cassidy feel like he won some sort of the dream horse lottery!

Owned and trained as a “bulldogger” by leading Canadian and international cowboy Curtis Cassidy of Alberta, it was originally his wife who spotted the horse at a barrel race. “Tyson”, never really took to running can’s but after he came home to the Cassidy’s and was introduced to the cattle, Curtis said that they were jumping steers off him by the third or fourth steer, and it was like “Tyson” had been doing it forever.

For Cassidy the coolest thing about a horse like “Tyson” is that he knows that the horse understands his job and can perform to the best of his ability over and over again, coming fast and straight out of the box, keeping up with the steer, and ultimately very quickly lining his cowboy up, no matter who that may be so that they can get a good and early jump on their steer.

According to fellow steer wrestler J esse Brown , he say “I’ve got all the confidence in the world when I’m riding Tyson,” after their recent second place finish at the RAM National Circuit Finals Rodeo in Kissimmee, Florida, where Tyson helped him ear $18,431. “He makes everything easy. I think he’s the best bulldogging horse in the world.” Just prior to the Florida rodeo in early April, the pair had captured the Steer Wrestling title at the The American, taking home $100,000 from Arlington, Texas’ legendary event.

With the 2022 Rodeo season now well underway for Cassidy and his Made in Canada brown gelding, the pair already have a number of wins and earning under their belt, with big claims still to stake at major ones like the Calgary Stampede all on the road to qualifying again for both the Canadian and National Finals Rodeo.

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