Reining By The Bay Highlights
By Alden Corrigan for RBB, Inc.
Photos by John O’Hara Photography
The combination of cool days and the huge outdoor pen at the spectacular Horse Park at Woodside, California proved to be the perfect setting for some of the fiercest competition of the year. The horses were fresh, the riders invigorated, and the size of the Bay Arena let the top horse and rider combinations in the country show the judges the true meaning of horsepower.
Frank Costantini, past president of NRHA, Chairman of the FEI Reining Committee and NRHA Hall of Fame inductee commented on his first trip to Reining By The Bay “The competition was really very close, competitive and phenomenal all in one fell swoop. The outdoor setting, the size of the arena and the preparation of the ground allowed the riders to really show what their horses were capable of.”
Frederick Christen of Whitehouse, Ohio, also a first-timer to Reining By The Bay, made the most of his pilgrimage West. Rick came into the competition as the leading rider from the first leg of the 2010 Trifecta Reining Challenge. New this year, the “Trifecta” boasts a seven day vacation for two to the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea to the highest money winning horse and rider combination in the non pro derby for Cactus Reining Classic, Reining By The Bay and the High Roller Reining Classic.
Skeets Little Annie
Christen who trains with Dan Huss, and his partner Skeets Little Annie were draw 33 out of 41 in the non pro derby and were staring down the barrel of huge scores of 223 posted by Kim Dooley on Country Custom and two scores of 222 posted by George Lawrence on This Chicsdundreamin and Tish Fappani on Premiere Diamond. Not to be outdone, Christen gave the run everything he and “Annie” had, resulting in a personal best of 225 for the win. Christen said after the run, “I knew we had to be spot on and tried to really emphasize her good points, which are her circles, her comeback in her circles, her spin, and hopefully get her built up for her stops. It seems that we achieved all those objectives … 225 is my highest score ever.” That score also earned Christen the win in the level 3 non pro derby and the Prime Time division as well. Christen also won the non pro futurity on his Starlite N Peppy (Skeets Peppy x Starlite N Oak x Docs Oak).
Starlite N Peppy
Skeets Little Annie (Skeets Peppy x Oaks Little Annie x Docs Oak) was purchased by Christen at the NRHA Futurity’s NRHA/Markel Insurance Prospect Sale in 2006. “Bobby Avila Jr. started her and when I purchased her she immediately went into Dan Huss’ program and she’s been with Dan ever since.” Due to an injury at age four Annie took a year off during which she was bred to his two stallions Heza Bigtime Bingo and Dun It Regally, producing three yearlings for Christen, all of which will be going into training later this year.
Andrea Fappani was also two-for-two in the futurity and derby, winning the 17-horse level 4 open futurity on Amanda Brumley’s Sweet N Custom (Custom Crome x Sweet BH) and the 23-horse level 4 open derby on Steven Simon’s Custom Smart Olena (Custom Crome x A Darn Smart Chic).
Level 4 open futurity winner Sweet N Custom was one of three futurity rides for Fappani, all of them first-timers to the show ring, and the one on which Fappani has had the shortest amount of time. “One of his best qualities is that he’s a good-minded horse. That’s why I decided to show him, even if he wasn’t that broke, just because he’s a pretty mature horse mentally. He’s more like a four-year-old gelding than a three-year-old stud. I’ve only taken him to one other show to see how he acted outside. No matter what arena you ride him in or what time of day he’s always the same. He’s very level-minded, and that’s probably the best quality for a reining horse because we ask so much early on and they need to be able to not get too excited about things, which made it possible for me to train him the way I wanted to. He’s always trying to figure out what you’re asking him to do. I had a pretty good feeling that he would be a good show horse, so I pushed him a little harder than the other horses, just because I knew that he had that kind of mentality and he showed well for me and posted a 148.
Sweet N Custom
Not only is Reining By The Bay horse and rider friendly, but it has become a big draw for spectators and sponsors alike. Frank Costantini who works for RBB Gold Sponsor Markel Insurance remarked on the size of the crowds at Reining By The Bay “The spectators at Reining By The Bay were a very educated group. They came from many disciplines to see what the best in the West had to offer. Everyone from Olympic Show Jumping gold medalist Will Simpson to New Zealand 2010 WEG team member Guy Thomas and an incredible number of athletes from other disciplines were on hand to see what these Reiners had to offer, and really showed their appreciation.”
Both sponsors and spectators packed the VIP and general admission tents at the Bay Arena for the open derby. For those who couldn’t be there in person, Corporate National Sponsor Equestrian Life provided free, live online streaming coverage (of both the open and non pro derbies) increasing the viewership by thousands of people worldwide, and the horses and riders did not disappoint a single one of them.
Custom Smart Olena
When the dust settled in the open derby, it was Fappani and Custom Smart Olena posting the highest scoring run of the show, a whopping 230.5, edging out Austrian WEG team rider Martin Muehlsteatter on Kim Dooley’s Wimpys Little Buddy (Wimpys Little Step x All Thats Dun x Hollywood Dun It) and Randy Paul on Rancho Oso Rio’s Star For The Chicks (Smart Starbuck x Dun It By Chick) both posting scores of 230.
Muehlsteatter won the coin toss and was awarded second place, with Paul in third. Wimpys Little Buddy also topped the level 3 open derby field of 21, and Sean McBurney on Great Red Chex (Great Red Pine x Pines Polly Chex) owned by Rhodes River Ranch won the level 2 open derby with a score of 225.5.
Fappani agrees that the Bay Arena enables the horses to perform to the best of their ability and garner such high scores “If you look at the horse I won on, he’s a big horse, he’s a Custom Crome … most of the ones I’ve ridden have been bigger horses, and they express themselves when they have a big space to go in. A smaller arena doesn’t give them the chance to get the speed and style they need to do their job, so this arena has an advantage for those types of horses. When you’ve got a lot of space, you can take your time and the horse shows a little bit better for you. I think the arena played a big part in the big scores we saw in the open derby.”
Speaking of animals going to new homes, Ken White, President of the Peninsula Humane Society, the charity partner of Reining By The Bay and emcee of the Friday “Pooch Parade” of animals available for adoption shared his enthusiasm for the event “The Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA is delighted to have been chosen for the second year in a row to participate with Reining By The Bay. This has proven a really wonderful opportunity to get our animals and our mission in front of an incredibly large audience of “animal people” who are simply drawn to help us help homeless animals in our community. We’ve made many new friends as the result. This partnership has led to quite a few of our dogs finding new forever families, including one dog who had been at our shelter for a very, long time; he left us for a sprawling, wonderful home and a lovely, loving family, and none of that would have been possible without Reining By The Bay. Pat and Jim Warren are the matchmakers who brought us all together. They adopted ‘Ralph the beagle’ from PHS/SPCA, and then clearly felt that this was a great next way to work together. And they were right, since this is a truly perfect match of missions and interests.”
Jim & Pat Warren
Horse Show Manager, Mandi Brumley of Brumley Management Group, could not have been more pleased with the 2010 event. ”The caliber of horses at Reining By The Bay this year was amazing…I think the open derby was one of the best derbies I have ever watched…the quality of horses and riders and the scoring was amazing. “
Replays of the non pro and open derbies can be seen free of charge in their entirety at www.equestrianlife.com/rbb
*Results unofficial at time of posting.
The National Reining Horse Association is not responsible for information contained in this posting. Please contact the author or submitting organization for further information, requests, or questions.
