Buncha Dinero, the homebred palomino mare Hayle Gibson-Stillwell calls Piper, has been voted the 2026 Nutrena Horse of the Year presented by AQHA in barrel racing, leading a top three that went entirely to offspring of PC Frenchmans Hayday.
Kathy Grimes’ KG Just Money (“Showie”) was second, and Hailey Kinsel’s DM Sissy Hayday (“Sister”), the 2025 winner, was third.
Ann Bleiker of the WPRA called with the news on Friday, Oct. 9, while Gibson-Stillwell was at a barrel race. She took the call in a corner of the warm-up pen expecting a question about the Finals, and once she heard, she needed a minute.
Piper was the reason. “Piper is just so special and that horse never says no,” Gibson-Stillwell said. “She loves her job so much. There’s so much passion that that mare has that she makes the passion ooze out of me. And I thought I was passionate until she came around.”
She is convinced the mare knows when it counts. “She can read the energy. It’s like she listens to the announcer,” Gibson-Stillwell said. “When the cards are stacked, she throws one down even harder than she would the day before.”
“I thought I was passionate until she came around.”
Hayle Gibson-Stillwell
Buncha Dinero (PC Frenchmans Hayday x Rambunchkie 11 x Bellamy Road 02) is a 2019 palomino mare bred and owned by Gibson-Stillwell, of Redcrest, Calif. The pair made their first National Finals Rodeo in 2025 at No. 12, won Round 7 and left Las Vegas No. 4 in the world. Piper was 6, and by the journal Gibson-Stillwell keeps, she had about 100 lifetime runs going in.
The 2026 season nearly started without her. Piper won both rounds of Gibson-Stillwell’s bracket at the Fort Worth Stock Show Rodeo in January, then quit drinking through the ice storm. Gibson-Stillwell bought water filters trying to change her mind, and Piper still landed in the ICU and missed the semifinals.
Gibson-Stillwell picked her up from the hospital on semifinal night and, with nowhere else to take her, brought her to the arena. Piper did not take it well. “She was pawing down the stall and bucking when I saddled the other horse,” Gibson-Stillwell said.
She was back by San Antonio. In May the pair won The American in Arlington, Texas, for $100,000, money that does not count toward the world standings. At the Calgary Stampede, Piper ran 16.56 in the Championship Sunday semifinal to set the arena record, and Gibson-Stillwell lost the Showdown to Kinsel by one-hundredth of a second for $20,000. She took the world standings lead July 27 and finished the regular season No. 1 with $218,455.
Asked for the one run of the year that stays with her, she picked a record-breaking Calgary performance. “It just came together,” Gibson-Stillwell said. “That was probably the most effortless, smooth run we’ve made. I don’t even remember thinking or having to do anything. We are truly one in that run, and we just had one heck of a bonded dance.”
Horse of the Year is voted on by the barrel racers Piper ran against all season. Gibson-Stillwell said that is the part that gives her chills.
What she most wants people to know is where Piper came from. “I think what’s really cool is she’s out of a thoroughbred mare, so an outcross,” Gibson-Stillwell said. “Thoroughbreds aren’t really supposed to be barrel horses, but she’s kind of helping put them on the map.”
That mare is Rambunchkie 11, a 2011 thoroughbred called Ruby. Gibson-Stillwell ponied her to the gates on the racetrack in Northern California, watched her run and bought her off the backside with about 42 starts. She started Ruby on the barrels and hauled her on the rodeo road, and the mare is still sound enough that Gibson-Stillwell has joked about running her at her upcoming circuit finals.
Ruby was animated enough that the running joke was she could clear a warm-up pen in her running days, and Piper inherited her fire.
All three horses at the top of the ballot share a sire. PC Frenchmans Hayday, the Potter Ranch stallion known as Dinero, went to the NFR in the barrel racing with Sherry Cervi, placing third in the 2005 average, and was an NFR-caliber heel horse on top of it. Piper, Showie and Sister are out of three very different mares, which Gibson-Stillwell says shows how strongly Dinero stamps soundness, longevity and smarts.
A full sibling to Piper is on the way, and Gibson-Stillwell plans to breed Fancy, the mare who goes everywhere Piper goes, to Dinero through ICSI.
For now she has a month off at home with her favorite apple tree, her favorite pear tree and a 1,000-pound bale of alfalfa. Gibson-Stillwell will leg her back up next month and does not plan to run her again before the NFR.
Ruby is booked to Pink Buckle stallions, starting with PC Redwood Manny. Gibson-Stillwell always had a plan for her. Ruby beat her to it.
“I always said Ruby is going to be a producer,” Gibson-Stillwell said. “And I said, ‘I’m going to make sure she’s a producer.’ But it’s funny, I didn’t make sure. She just was like, ‘Yep, I’m a producer,’ and created Piper.”
2026 Nutrena Horse of the Year presented by AQHA, barrel racing
- Buncha Dinero “Piper,” ridden and owned by Hayle Gibson-Stillwell
- KG Just Money “Showie,” ridden and owned by Kathy Grimes
- DM Sissy Hayday “Sister,” ridden and owned by Hailey Kinsel