Namgis D 33, the 16-year-old gray gelding Emily Beisel calls Chongo, crossed $1 million in QData lifetime earnings Oct. 25 by winning the 1D on the final day of the Shawnee Classic in Shawnee, Okla., in 14.61 seconds for $2,253, a mark he built mostly on the rodeo road.
He did it the hard way. By QData’s numbers, most of that money came at rodeos, and more than half of it came at the National Finals Rodeo alone.
He was close earlier this month. At the Pink Buckle at the Lazy E Arena in Guthrie, Okla., Chongo finished the Open Only average seven thousandths behind his stablemate, Pipewrench, and Beisel had already run the numbers.
“I feel like that he’s probably there, but recorded earnings, we’re knocking on the door,” Beisel said.
He left Guthrie less than $7,000 short, and a check at the Red Dirt Barrel Bash cut that to about $5,000. Shawnee put him over, and Beisel knew it the second the clock stopped.
“When 14.61 popped up on the scoreboard, knowing that was the fast time of a huge weekend of barrel racing, I knew he made it,” Beisel said. “I had to fist pump first, and then emotions took over and the happy tears were in full force.”
That puts Chongo in an elite club, and it is not a club built for comparing. By QData’s count, 15 barrel horses got to $1 million before him. Hailey Kinsel’s DM Sissy Hayday is in it. So are Kassie Mowry’s Force The Goodbye, Lisa Lockhart’s An Oakie With Cash, Jordon Briggs’ Famous Lil Jet and Sherry Cervi’s MP Meter My Hay. Andrea Busby’s Jets Top Gun crossed at the 2024 NFR. KN Fabs Gift Of Fame, the mare Ivy Saebens made famous, is in it, and we wrote then that she earned hers “the hard way.” Jessica Routier’s Fiery Miss West (“Missy”) is there, along with Tricia Aldridge’s Adios Pantalones, Dusky Lynn Hall’s Aint Seen Famous Yet, Amber Moore’s CP Dark Moon and Mary Walker’s Perculatin, Sharin Hall’s Hello Stella and Brandon Cullins’ MJ Segers Fast Lane got there as young horses, and Randee Prindle’s Red Man Jones got there the long way, at open and slot races.
And then there are the greats whose numbers on paper never told the whole story. Charmayne James’ Scamper, Kristie Peterson’s Bozo and Deb Mohon’s Brown ran before anybody tracked a barrel horse’s money this closely, and nobody will ever really know what they won.
Chongo earned every cent of his. His first checks came as a 4-year-old in 2014, his latest came this month at 16, and he has won at least once in every season Beisel has owned him.
He is built for it. Chongo (Bucks Hancock Dude x Track Goddess x Eyesa Special) is a 2010 gray gelding owned by Beisel and bred by the late Stan Sigman of Hondo, Texas, whose Namgis Quarter Horses program is his last name spelled backward. Bucks Hancock Dude was the 2007 AQHA Reserve World Champion junior tie-down horse, and Track Goddess was a winning racing mare. Sigman’s idea was a Hancock roping horse crossed on racehorses, and you do not see many like that running down an NFR alley anymore.
“A lot of people don’t think that those horses can run, but man, if you’d ever watch Pipewrench and Chongo get across a pen, they can fly and there’s no denying their speed or their heart and ability,” Beisel said.
If you have watched Beisel go from the Prairie Circuit to eight straight NFRs, and from there to running derby, open and rodeo horses at the top of all three, you know Chongo. Beisel, of Weatherford, Okla., finished the 2026 regular season No. 2 in the world, and Chongo has made runs at all seven NFRs she has run so far.
Pipewrench is how she found him. Beisel has ridden Namgis D 35, a stablemate from the same breeding program, since 2015, and the gray was on her radar from then on.
“I always loved him,” Beisel said.
Before he was hers, Chongo was already winning. Kylie Weast, a 2018 NFR qualifier whose family started and trained the Namgis horses, rode him as a 4-year-old in 2014, and by QData’s count he earned $27,581 from 2014 through 2017. Their biggest checks came in the slot races, $12,500 for fifth at the LG Pro Classic and $7,000 for fourth at the BBR World Finals, and he placed third in the AQHA World Junior barrels.
Beisel got the reins in 2018 and took him rodeoing. That first season he won $19,279, nearly all of it at PRCA/WPRA rodeos, and by QData’s count he won first at four of them, including the second round of the All American ProRodeo Finals.
Beisel won the first round of her first circuit finals on Rare Bugs Alive, and when she made her first NFR in 2019, Chongo won the first round.
“I won the first round of my first circuit finals and I won the first round of my first NFR,” Beisel said in 2022.
He won Round 4 that year too. In 2020 he won Rounds 6 and 7 back to back at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. In 2021 he ran a 13.43 to win Round 5, the fastest time of that NFR. In 2022 he won Round 4 on a night all 15 runs were clean, then split Round 6 with Brittany Pozzi Tonozzi.
“Chongo has won seven NFR go-rounds for me in four years,” Beisel said that December. “That’s incredible. He’s spoiled me rotten.”
The checks are only part of what she credits him with.
“He always had ‘it’ but what makes his role so much more special is beyond his athletic ability, he taught me to be a champion,” Beisel said. “Being a champion doesn’t come easy, and if it does, it likely won’t last. Chongo taught me that talent might get you in the door, but heart, grit, consistency and an unwavering belief in what you’re capable of are what keep you there. He changed the way I compete, the way I think and ultimately the way I see myself. What a horse!”
Las Vegas is only part of it. Chongo has won rounds or titles at Calgary and Ponoka in Alberta, at Cody, Wyo., and at San Antonio and Fort Worth, and he swept the Prairie Circuit Finals in Duncan, Okla., in 2020.
“The good thing about Chongo is that if I do my job, he takes care of the clock,” Beisel said after winning Ponoka in 2023.
He is a war horse, and he does things his way. Beisel has described him as tricky to the first barrel, a horse who needs momentum and sets hard.
“Chongo is just ornery, but Pipewrench is competitive,” Beisel said.
He does not always look fast doing it, either.
“He’s the big, beautiful gray with a really long stride, very deceiving style, but he shuts the clock off and he’s incredible,” Beisel said in 2020.
Away from the pen, he is a different animal. Beisel said in 2020 that he is so quiet at home “you could literally put a checkered board under his belly and kids could sit there and play checkers all day.”
People love this horse. At the 2023 NFR, Chongo felt less than 100% in Round 1 and Ivory On Fire (“Liza”) won Round 6. Through the first half of that Finals, Beisel took criticism from his fans.
“I know he’s got a huge fan base, but I didn’t realize how ruthless his fans are,” Beisel said. “They’re his fans, not mine or Liza’s, so sometimes I feel bad. But I’ve got to do what’s best for Chongo. He doesn’t owe me anything.”
That has been the plan since 2020, when she took him home in the middle of the summer rather than haul him across the country.
“You can’t put a ton of miles on ’em and a ton of runs on ’em,” Beisel said that year. “That’s always sad to see a horse that has won and won and won get used up, and I don’t want to do that to him.”
He adapted, and so did she. Nearly all of Chongo’s money this year has come at barrel races, and Beisel pointed both of her 16-year-olds at the Pink Buckle’s Open Only class on purpose.
“This gives me so much purpose for these guys, especially the aged horses too,” Beisel said. “They still get to come and run for good money.”
At 16, he ran a 16.762 in the second round in Guthrie, and she let him go.
“Today I just sent it and I mean, he was hooked up,” Beisel said. “He almost left me at that first barrel when he got down and turned. I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, stay in the buggy, Emily.’ And it’s incredible for him to still be able to make those moves.”
The NFR is next, and Beisel is legging Liza back up and getting Teasin Dat Guy (“Chewy”) ready for Las Vegas. Chongo, Pipewrench, her gelding Vanilla Gorilla, “Trigger,” and her derby horse, Dashing Olie, are in reserve.
“Olie, Chongo, Pipe, they’re all just sitting here on standby just in case,” Beisel said.
At the trailer in Guthrie, people kept stopping to see him, and it held up her interview.
“They enjoy coming out there and getting to know him and taking a selfie with him,” Beisel said. “And I appreciate that. I appreciate that everybody loves and respects that horse for what he’s done and is still doing.”
Asked what he has meant to her, she kept it to a few lines.
“There’s horses that come into your life and change it. Then there’s the horse that moves the entire trajectory of your life… for me, that’s Chongo.”
The Checks That Got Him There
By QData’s numbers, $845,341 of Chongo’s $1,000,731 came at rodeos, $515,746 of it at the NFR.
NFR round wins: 2019 Rounds 1 and 4 ($26,231 each) · 2020 Rounds 6 and 7 ($26,231 each) · 2021 Round 5, 13.43 ($26,997) · 2022 Round 4 ($28,914) and a split of Round 6 ($25,882).
Pink Buckle 2026, Guthrie, Okla.: Open 1D Round 1, split 13th, 16.884, $1,169 · Round 2, 11th, 16.762, $1,513 · average, split sixth, 33.646, $5,500 · Open Only average, second, $4,312 · owner/rider sidepot rounds, $792 and $1,104. QData credits him $17,990 for the week, incentive money included.
Red Dirt Barrel Bash Day 1 1D, split sixth, $1,331.
Shawnee Classic, Shawnee, Okla.: Day 2 1D, second, $2,052 · Day 2 High Stakes sidepot, second, $1,555 · Day 3 1D, first, 14.61, $2,253.