Ben Jones and Howdy Lewis, two itinerant horse wranglers tired of spending their winters rounding up stray horses in the New Mexico hills, make a pledge to give up the carousing that keeps them forever in debt to their stingy employer, rancher Jim Ed Love. They also attempt to solve another of their problems by getting rid of Ol' Fooler, a wild roan that stubbornly refuses to be broken. They let moonshiner Vince Moore have him in exchange for some corn liquor, but the horse also likes whisky, and he is returned. With time, however, the two men develop a grudging admiration for the animal and accept him as partial payment for their winter's work, planning to enter him as a bucking bronco in a rodeo. Before the event Ben and Howdy join two Las Vegas strippers for a midnight swim in the state fish hatchery but are forced to flee from a pursuing game warden. At the rodeo, Ol' Fooler lives up to expectations but sustains what the vet calls a fatal injury. Ben agrees to have the horse shot; but as soon as Ol' Fooler sees the gun, he bolts up and wildly lashes out at the two cowboys. Ben and Howdy pay the vet for his demolished barn and set out with Ol' Fooler to seek another job from Jim Ed Love.
