Adios Pantalones is back.
The winningest barrel racing stallion of all time won the average at the 2026 California Rodeo Salinas, banking $14,420 for Tricia Aldridge, his first title since a fractured hock and the surgery that followed kept him off the rodeo road for roughly five months.
The 6-year-old stallion (Tres Seis x French Bar Belle x Frenchman’s Guy) opened 2026 in form. He’d been to three rodeos: placing second in both rounds of his set in Fort Worth, second at Jackson, Mississippi, and won a round at San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo. As he advanced there, the shifting ground conditions led to the end of his winter.
He fractured a hock during one run, an injury that comes with a hard choice: turn the horse out for a year, or operate.
“I feel like if you put a screw in it and get it attached, they’re a lot less likely to get arthritis in that joint, so long-term it’s much better to just go ahead and do the surgery,” Aldridge said. “The risk is splitting the piece when they’re putting it back in. If it had been any other horse it would’ve been a no-brainer, but with Adios the vets were pretty nervous to lay him down.” Aldridge weighed the long game and chose the operation.
Dr. Marsh performed the surgery. Adios went on stall rest, got Equiscope with Diamond E Equine work three days a week, and was back under saddle at right around 30 days, never lame on the joint and never swollen. What followed was not a turnout and hope for the best situation. It was a very detailed program.
“I try to be pretty calculated with something like a hock fracture,” Aldridge said. “Thirty days completely off on stall rest, 30 days walk and trot in straight lines only, 30 days walk-trot-canter, and then 30 days of regular routine work. If it’s a little bit sore, you’ll devour their confidence.”
Aldridge treated the horse’s head as carefully as the joint. She watched her name drop from inside the top 15 in the WPRA standings, to as low as 25th. But she still didn’t rush it.
“It’s so important, not only for his physical wellbeing but also his confidence,” Aldridge said, “making sure he’s comfortable with how it feels and that we don’t have any problems with that hock coming back.”
Christi Christensen, the manager at Highpoint Performance horses, legged him up before he shipped west, and by the time he reached Aldridge he was ready to run.
“His first run was at Reno, and he made the finals,” Aldridge said. “He’s probably the only horse ever that you could do that on.”
Aldridge marveled at it, then pointed to how sparingly she runs him. She saves him for when it counts, and since the comeback he has placed at all but one rodeo.
While he healed, Aldridge kept her season alive on other horses and played defense to keep her name high on the list, cashing on her futurity mare Kissin Goodbye, “Ember,” at RodeoHouston and bringing along a horse she’s seasoning to rodeos in DesignerLeapToHeaven.
Salinas is a hard week to win. It’s three runs in the long round, a finals and pays on the average on four.
The California pattern is a long racetrack setup with an odd angle and, often, other cattle running down the arena at the horse. That’s because most of the rodeo events take place on the other side of the fence behind the second barrel, sometimes appearing to run straight at them into the fence.
Aldridge credited tie-down roping legend Joe Beaver for walking her in the opening rounds, but the horse did most of the reading himself.
“He literally decides the best, fastest move for him in the situation,” Aldridge said. “If he can, he will. When he steps out around the third, I know he doesn’t feel as comfortable in the ground, but he takes care of himself every time.”
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Aldridge described a horse that adjusts on the fly, snapping the third and changing leads when the ground is firm, running a rounder, faster arc when it is loose.
“That horse has never made the wrong call in a situation, never,” Aldridge said. “He feels a lot more than what the video might show.”
But even the winning week had a wrinkle. In the third round, a team roping run broke loose in the neighboring arena when he was partway through the run. A header came straight at him from the left.
“You see his ears go straight up and he goes to the right, (going to the third barrel)” Aldridge said. “He’s a mile off course and still like, I don’t understand why they’re running at me. But it’s a really good thing he’s fast, because he’s still running one, and I got a check.”
By the short round, Aldridge felt the week. She does not often admit to nerves. But she found herself riding with a little extra bend to keep the horse fluid and clean away from the barrels. Then the emotions hit after she realized she’d locked up the win in 15.98.
“I definitely had tears when they handed it to me,” Aldridge said. “It means so much to bring him back through all of his recovery and have him just hit the ground running. That horse just always does enough for me. That one’s definitely for him.”
Aldridge called the week his.
The win puts Aldridge within striking distance of the top 15 unofficially in the WPRA World Standings, and she plans to stay selective, picking the buildings that suit him.
A second stallion, her Calgary Stampede mount Blazin Sugar Daddy, is joining her string for the summer run, giving her two studs to campaign. But the story of the week was the one who came back.
“I’m just honored to get to swing a leg over him,” Aldridge said. “He’s one in a billion.”