2007 NORTHWEST DODGE DEALERS IRCHA SNAFFLE BIT FUTURITY PAYS OUT OVER $185,000

By Laurie Errington

FLO’N TO THE MUSIC

After a tough time at the Snaffle Bit Futurity in Reno, Nevada, Annie Reynolds and Very Smart Flo Jo cranked it up, to capture not only the Open Futurity title at the 33^rd Idaho Reined Cow Horse Futurity and Derby, but also the Non Pro title as well. And music it was as entries competed for a piece of over $185,000 up for grabs at the Idaho Horse Park in Nampa, Idaho, held Oct. 23^rd- 28^th, 2007.

The young filly, by Very Smart Remedy, suffered an abscess the end of July and had Anne a little worried going into the busy show season. “She just wasn’t getting any better. It had been 2 weeks and nothing was helping. I was ready to take her in for a MRI, when the abscess finally broke” she said. After nursing the abscess along, the dynamic duo headed to Reno where the filly shortly caught a cold. “She was doing pretty good until we went down the fence and she just couldn’t catch her air”. Then she got bruised again between Reno and Idaho, so I didn’t get to ride her until 3 days before the show”. “Flo Jo”, is out of Tina Cash Flo, bred and owned by Anne’s mother, Joyce Pearson. Tina Cash Flo has teamed with Reynolds to earn over $30,000.

The Idaho Reined Cow Horse Futurity was started by Jim Roeser and Dr. Bob Carlsen in 1974 and has evolved into one of Idaho’s premier Horse Events. Jake Telford of Caldwell, Idaho is the current president of the Idaho Reined Cow Horse Association, and did another great job of putting things together for a successful show. He also acknowledges all the great help he received from the Association’s Board of Directors. “The Open Futurity entries were up this year, but some of the others were down a bit, so it all worked out pretty well”, claimed Telford.

An added attraction this year was the “Team Branding”. Each four person team, had to consist of least one member that was either a contestant in the horse show, or someone that was helping with the show. The winning team, from McKenzie Ranch, which was not only the cattle provider, but also a buckle sponsor, took home a Beautiful Marlin 30-30 Rifle for each member of the team.

As the echoes rang from the nearby Clay Walker concert, the awards banquet went on as usual with great food, folks and fun as everyone watched the thrilling video footage put together by Dan Browning from Raindancer Video.

Judges for the event were Jaime Beamer and Allen Walton.

REYNOLDS MOTTO: SHOW UP AND DO MY JOB THE BEST I CAN!

Showing English horses as a youngster taught Anne how to be a good balanced rider as well as knowing hard work. She knows that what you put in is what you get out. “You never know whether it’s going to be a good show or a bad show. I show up and do my job the best I can”, claims the all time leading Non Pro money earner in the NRCHA. Of course it helps to be mounted on a good horse. “This filly is so good minded and easy to show, she’s really steady and sensible. You can always count on her.” Reynolds stated, “She doesn’t get rattled by all the show stuff or anything”. “She was a little bit of a slow starter, but she came on in mid-July,” says Annie. “She started cuttin’ a cow, spinnin’ and fencin’, all the way!” With an early draw in the herd in the prelims, Annie and Flo scored a 145 to get the ball rollin’. A little scotch in the dry work cost them a few points and they posted a 141. After a nice run down the fence to score 145, the duo was set to make the finals. Posting another 145 in the finals herd work, and a better dry work score of 144, added to the 145.5 fence score, the Championship titles were clenched. Anne rode Flo to the winner’s circle and accepted checks for $13,064 and $2079 as Champions of the Open and Non Pro Futurity, respectively.

Where will she go on vacation this year?

Each year after the final show of the year, Reynolds takes a much deserved vacation. Last year she was accompanied by her son Hollister as they traveled to Egypt to observe the impressive architecture that Anne admires. Something few people know of Anne, is her appreciation for architecture, which is evident in the numerous barns she has designed and built over the years.

JUSTIN LAWRENCE CLAIMS INTERMEDIATE TITLE

Traveling from the eastern side of Montana, Justin Lawrence, of Alzeda, showed up on his trusty steed to claim the Intermediate Championship. Marking a composite score of 430 in the finals, aboard Ray J Boonlight, owned by Avery May, Lawrence took a check for $3855. The “easy to train” stud was purchased by May as a 2 year old from the Polo Ranch and was taken to Justin to start the process of building a futurity champion. After placing 2^nd in a futurity in South Dakota, and making the finals in Reno, “Boon” was destined to win sooner or later. “He’s just been real good to train”, said Lawrence, “he’s best in the herd because he has such a big ‘ol stop on him. The cows were tough in the prelims and they ate a lot of good horses”. “I safetied up and we had a good run. “ We had a little bobble in the dry work, but that was my fault, not his. I was super pleased with him down the fence” As the last rider to go in the fence work, Justin and “Boon” marked a 145 to clinch the title and pick up a beautiful Vogt Silver buckle. “I’m looking forward to a fun, long time deal with this horse.” said Justin, “I’m going to cut on him this winter and then hit the big shows and enter the derbies.”

TODD FITCH KEEPS MORE MONEY IN IDAHO AS HE WINS THE LIMITED OPEN FUTURITY

On his way to the Idaho Reined Cow Horse Futurity in Nampa this year, Todd Fitch, from Arbon, Idaho, passed a dead rabbit on the side of the road that had been hit. It crossed his mind to stop and get the rabbits foot, to take with him for some good luck. Then he remembered, a guy told him one time,” that’s not a very lucky rabbit if he got hit on the road. “You need to find one that died from old age”. So he chose not to stop. Some kind of luck stuck with him, or maybe it was because Brandon Buttars wasn’t there to wipe his bad luck off onto him, as he carried away the title for the Limited Open Futurity riding Tuckers Smart, owned by his good friends, Vance and Joann Ward. Todd and Brandon have had a longtime joke about wiping off their “bad luck”.  Todd and “Sparky” drew up good in the herd. First out, Todd had been watching the cows and had 2 picked that he didn’t want. “ So I walked right in there, and those were the two left standing in front of me, so I cut one of them and it actually worked well, says Fitch, “Sparky worked pretty darn good in the herd and we scored  a 141.” “He was wanting to stop in the dry work, so we went for it and got three real good stops, to score 142.5. The cows were a little soft for the fence work, but on our second turn we really had to get out in front of it.” The tough little gelding jumped up there and got in front of it, to mark a score of 143. Todd has the snot on his chaps to prove it. They say you know you had a good fence run, when you have cow snot or crap on your chaps! Todd, a two time Snaffle Bit Futurity contestant, started “Sparky” as a long yearling in anticipation for a great show in Reno. “It didn’t go as good as I planned” said Fitch,“ I just didn’t get him shown to his potential.” “He’s such a great little, good minded, guy. Sometimes I feel a little guilty when all these other people are getting up early and tuning on their horses before the show. I can just pull him out of the stall and he’s ready to show. He’s the easiest horse I’ve ever had.”  Sparky and Todd collected a check for $2685 after marking a composite score of 426.5

OTHER WINNERS

Ferndale, Washington resident, Allison Trimble, piloted her horse, Sugar N Okie, to a composite score of 407 and banked a check for $1048 after winning the Intermediate Non Pro Futurity. Trimble also took reserve honors aboard Tangys Classy Sox.

Kathryn Schaeffer walked away with a check for $750 after winning the Amateur Non Pro Futurity with a score of 406 riding her horse, Diamond J Twist.

The $1500 Novice Horse buckle went to Brandon Staebler as he posted a 434.5 on Shiney Sulena, owned by Kimberly Routh.  

HARD WORK PAYS OFF FOR DOUG WILLIAMSON

65 year old, Doug Williamson is still going strong. Strong enough to win the Open Derby class after scoring the high fence score of 149, aboard Sierras Lullabye, owned by Sandie Braden, of Terrebonne, Oregon, and pick up a check at the pay window for $5670. “I’ve had a great year and I think it’s because all that hard work is finally payin’ off,” says Doug. “We work 7 days a week, starting just before daylight. My Daddy always told me “you make your own luck”. Williamson travels the 800 miles every year, not only to come to the show, but to visit relatives in Idaho, where his parents Barbara and Sylvan, still help run the ranch. The dedicated parents drove to the Idaho Horse Park every day to watch their son participate in one of their favorite events. Also in Idaho are Doug’s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. “Sierra” has been with Doug since a 2 year old. She has qualified for the NRCHA World twice and won the Open Hackamore at Paso Robles. The unstoppable team will compete in the “Lucky 7’ roping in Las Vegas to try a shot at the $100,000 jackpot. “She has never taken a lame step, never used a needle on her, she is solid Iron!” exclaims Williamson, “but she picked up some kind of fungus on her back leg and the morning of the fence work that leg was twice the size as normal. So I got out my “special stuff’ and put it on her. That got it down to about half of normal” Luckily she has a big heart, bigger than that arena we were riding in, because you’d never know she was sore, by the way she handled that cow down the fence.” “ I thought they would have give me a new cow but they didn’t, so we just caught up to it and finished our business” She was under control, all I had to do was ask her and she got me there. She’s good at whatever you ask her. I really think she’s a better heel horse than a cow horse. She’s won nearly everything I’ve entered her in.”

DEE CRAIG WINS OPEN INTERMEDIATE DERBY ON TURN BACK HORSE

In August of this year, folks could see Dee Craig and Smart Like Jerry, sitting in the corner of the cuttin’ pen, like any other turn back horse. The recently gelded “non pro” horse had  been injured as a three year old, and actually jumped out from under owner Vicki Cantlon, of Boise, Idaho, as she was recovering from a bout with West Nile Virus. He was headed to the Sell Barn, when Dee talked Vicki into giving him a chance. “They actually had some offers on him!’ exclaims Craig, then all of a sudden he just came on! He ran well, and even surprised me. He has performed beyond what I ever expected. He’s got a lot of style and is a real good, solid pony. “Magic” and Craig drew up late in the herd work and still got shown. ”A lot of people had trouble with the cows,” said Dee. “We actually scored our highest score in the herd with a 144. Going down the fence, the cow fell and we had to jump it, but we recovered well.”  A check for $1782 went to Dee and Magic for claiming the Intermediate Derby title as well as a check for $4536 for Reserve Champion in the Open Derby. When he’s not showing horses in the Cutting pen or Cow Horse events, Dee can be found behind a racquetball racquet, challenging his 22 year old son Tyler to another “womping”, or somewhere getting wild on his dirt bike!

CONTRACTOR, SHANE DEMLER, ACCEPTS CROWN FOR NON PRO DERBY

When Shane Demler puts his mind to something, he WILL get ‘er done. As one of the Intermountain’s largest Commercial Masonry Contractors, Demler has become a success, both on his horse and with his business. Chics a Badger, purchased as a yearling, from Jim Babcock, carried Demler  to the winners circle as they accepted a check for  $1134 after winning the Non Pro Derby.  “Karl Smith and Gary Stark, have helped me with her and both have done a great job!’ states Shane. It worked out real good that she was staying at Gary’s, not too far from the Idaho Horse Park. We’d go work cows and then throw her in the trailer and go show.” “She’s a good honest sucker”, says Demler, “the most honest horse I’ve had. Tons of try and has had no other obstacles other than myself! My horse is why I won. I had no business beating my competition, but I have a real good mare.” “I would have to say, her finest quality is knowing the difference between the herd and the fence, Demler says, “and she’s pretty photogenic too!” “The cattle were tough in the herd and she handled them, but in the dry work we drug a lead, which was my fault. She really handled another tough cow down the fence. As his Masonry business continues to grow in leaps and bounds, and his show career is taking off, Demler still secretly believes he is a “ROCK STAR”.