Duane Latimer

Fifteen finalists out of 44 in the preliminaries competed in Junior Reining on Nov. 21 at State Fair Park in Oklahoma City. The class attracted some of reining’s top riders and horses, who circled and stopped their way to a piece of the $47,177 total purse.

Latimer, a Canadian who divides his time between Bigfork, Mont., and Ardmore, Okla., and Ken and Margaret Johnson’s 5-year-old stallion led the field from the very first run, pocketing a $9,435 check at the end.

“On the first stop, I think the ground was a little deeper than he was used to, so he went in real good and I thought he let go just a little bit at the end,” Latimer said. “But after that, I thought he was really, really good for me.”

The NRHA Million Dollar Rider got the stallion late in his 3-year-old year and showed in the but didn't make the finals. The following year, despite some quarter-crack problems, Shiners Lena Dust made the NRHA Derby finals. This year, he placed second at the Cowboys Classic and was a finalist at both the NRBC and Derby.

“He’s a really good horse,” said Latimer, who holds six AQHA World Championships. “He deserves to have a title, and his owners are awesome people.”

“He’s a big horse, so in a smaller arena like this one he probably doesn’t express himself at his best, but he had a nice, solid run. When he goes out there, he looks like he’s going a little bit slower than some of the smaller horses, so he needs a little bigger arena to really get going and look like he’s going fast,” Fappani said.

The handsome 4-year-old with the thick, black mane already has more than $150,000 in NRHA earnings. Fappani, an NRHA Million Dollar Rider who lives in San Marcos, Calif., owned the stallion until a couple of months ago, when he sold him to Mark Schols, Aubrey, Texas.

Most Valuable Horse

Drawing third in the Junior Reining finals were Dell Hendricks, another NRHA Million Dollar Rider, and Luckys Starlight , who marked a 217.5 that landed them in sixth place. But although the veteran trainer from Tioga, Texas, was disappointed with the placing, he was happy to learn the 4-year-old stallion won the Most Valuable Horse Award in Pattern/Cow.

Dell Hendricks

Nevertheless, the sixth-place finish, plus a ninth in Performance Halter Stallions, in which Kathy Smallwood showed the stallion, earned him enough points to win a MVH. This is the second year AQHA has given the awards to recognize the highest point-earning horses in six Open divisions. The pattern/cow division includes cutting, reining and working cow horse events. Performance halter class placings count as bonus points, and a horse earning points in two or more classes is placed over a horse that earns points in only class.

“I had no idea about the award, but I’m definitely happy about it,” said Hendricks. “Any award a horse can get makes me very happy.”

The MVH netted a $500 check for Luckys Starlight’s owner, Joan Cain, Vero Beach, Fla., who has also owned halter horses.

“I guess we’ll keep showing him in the reining, but I guess we’re going to have to do some more halter,” Hendricks said with a laugh.