Category: History

For Immediate Release – July 11, 2019 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma  – The Italian Reining Horse Association (IRHA) and National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) announce a historic moment for reining in Europe! Due to the recent success of his offspring at the 2019 Maturity held in Caluso (TO) Italy, July 2–7, Spat Olena is unofficially the first Million Dollar Sire in Europe.

Spat Olena, out of Steps Little Remedy, is the fifth offspring by Six Million Dollar sire and 2004 Hall of Fame Inductee Smart Chic Olena to reach this million-dollar milestone. RS Starfighter Lena helped make this achievement happen by winning both the Level (L) 4 and L3 IRHA Maturity Non Pro titles.

The 1993 stallion, owned by Claudio Risso, had great success of his own in the show pen.

Some of his accolades include 1997 NRHA Open Derby Reserve Champion and Limited Open Champion; 1997 SRHA Futurity Open and Limited Open Champion; 1998 National Reining Breeders L2 Open Champion, and 1998 All American Quarter Horse Congress Open Reserve Champion and Intermediate Open Champion. His NRHA lifetime earnings (LTE) total more than $38,900.

Spat Olena’s top-earning offspring are:

• RS Fondadores Olena (out of RS Foxy Jacs): $116,157 NRHA LTE
• RS Spat Man O War (out of RS Hollywood Hglo): $81,778 NRHA LTE
• RS Ramses Olena (out of Docs Jabalena): $80,973 NRHA LTE
• Spat A Blue (out of ARC Joy Surprises): $78,751 NRHA LTE
• Spat Split AndWhite (out of ARC Joy Surprises): $75,352 NRHA LTE

Congratulations to Spat Olena and Claudio Risso on this outstanding achievement!

For Immediate Release – June 24, 2019 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – Since its inception in 1966, the National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) has seen just one mare whose offspring have earned one million dollars. After the completion of the 2019 NRHA Derby Open Saturday night, the NRHA Million Dollar Dam list unofficially grew to two horses when Dun It For Chex’s offspring earned her enough to unofficially make her the second NRHA Million Dollar Dam.

The 1996 mare is by NRHA Hall of Fame Inductee and Six Million Dollar Sire Hollywood Dun It and out of Silver N Blue Chex. Dun It For Chex is owned by Cardinal Hill Training Center, LLC, an NRHA Corporate Partner, based in Aubrey, Texas.

Just last year, Dun It For Chex was inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame for proving herself outside of the arena in her breeding career. She has produced some of today’s most recognizable reining horses—both for their competitive success and their flashy coat colors. Her offspring have unofficially earned more than $1,002,600 in NRHA competition, rolling her up to second place on the NRHA leading dam list, behind the first NRHA Million Dollar Dam, Ebony Shines.

To date, Dun It For Chex has produced more than 20 foals with NRHA earnings, including two with more than $100,000 in NRHA Lifetime Earnings (LTE) each. These foals have earned top finishes at the NRHA Futurity and Derby, the FEI World Equestrian Games™ (WEG), and the National Reining Breeders Classic (NRBC).

Before the NRHA Derby this past week, Dun It For Chex was around $25,000 shy of crossing the million-dollar mark. Two of Franco Bertolani’s mounts—Cardinal Hill Training Center’s Masked Gun and Dun It For Whizkey—bumped the mare’s offspring earnings up by $3,000 ($2,000 on Dun It For Whizkey and $1,000 on Masked Gun) during the Open Derby go-rounds. Non pro Michael Garnett and Hollywood Nites pushed her just under $14,000 shy of the million-dollar mark on Friday night during the Derby Non Pro Finals. Dun It For Chex’s Masked Gun and Dun It For Whizkey also had great performances in the NRHA Open Derby finals Saturday night with Bertolani at the reins moved the elite mare past the NRHA Million Dollar Dam mark.

Dun It For Chex’s most notable offspring include:

• Dun It For Whizkey (by Topsail Whiz): NRHA LTE of $231,017
• Starbucks Sidekick (by Smart Starbuck): NRHA LTE of $197,529
• Masked Gun (by Gunner): NRHA LTE of $80,620
• Hollywood Nites (by Gunners Special Nite): NRHA LTE of $83,790
• Wranglin In Chex (by Starlights Wrangler): NRHA LTE of $70,599

For Immediate Release – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – June 10, 2019 – The annual American Horse Publications (AHP) three-day conference features the Equine Media Awards Banquet. Held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, this year, AHP’s Equine Media Awards competition featured nearly 600 entries for materials published in 2018. After the entries were reviewed and the judging was complete, the National Reining Horse Association’s (NRHA) monthly publication, the NRHA Reiner, and the marketing department received multiple awards.

Gary Carpenter, NRHA Commissioner, reflected on the awards received by NRHA. “As proud as I am of what our Reiner and marketing staff accomplished in this competition, the key to me is that competition helps us stay sharp and keep our edge. Ultimately, it’s the value we bring to NRHA members that matters.”

NRHA Placing Entries

3^rd Place—Editorial Event Coverage Single Article Circulation or Users Under 20,000; 14 Entries
NRHA Reiner—2018 NRHA Derby
By Megan Arszman

2^nd Place—Business Equine-Related Single Print Advertisement; 19 Entries
National Reining Horse Association—2018 NRHA Derby
Jana Thomason, Designer
Hayley Eberle, Manager of Marketing & Outreach

2^nd Place—Business Equine-Related Multimedia Ad Campaign; Five Entries
National Reining Horse Association—2018 NRHA Derby
Jana Thomason, Designer
Hayley Eberle, Designer/Manager of Marketing & Outreach

3^rd Place—Business Equine-Related Long Video; 12 Entries
National Reining horse Association—Respect the Horse, Respect the Sport
AIM Equine Network, Production Team
Mariah Hammerschmidt, Producer

For Immediate Release – May 28, 2019 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – Cromed Out Mercedes has officially joined the National Reining Horse Association’s (NRHA) Million Dollar Sire club. NRHA congratulates the 2005 stallion and his owners, Silver Spurs Equine.

Cromed Out Mercedes is by NRHA $4 Million Dollar Sire Custom Crome and out of Princess In Diamonds. As a competitor, Cromed Out Mercedes has won in excess of $147,000. Andrea Fappani, an NRHA Five Million Dollar Rider, piloted Cromed Out Mercedes to a top-10 finish in the 2008 NRHA Futurity Open, won the 2009 National Reining Breeders Classic Open Classic, and finished just out of the top 10 in the 2009 NRHA Derby Open.

Cromed Out Mercedes has 211 money-winning offspring, whose earnings total just under $1,002,000. Here are his top-earning offspring.

• Ms Mercedes Whiz (out of Ms Hollywood Whiz): $110,151.78 NRHA LTE
• Mercedes Kenz (out of Mifilady): $38,828.59 NRHA LTE
• Benz Smokin (out of Dontquestionthischic): $38,723.91 NRHA LTE
• Diamonds N Mercedes (out of Lemon Twist Nic): $37,915.77 NRHA LTE
• Cromed Out Gunner (out of Smoking Gypsy Rose): $33,453.64 NRHA LTE

2020 NRHA Rule Changes Approved 

NRHA Board of Directors Spring Meeting a Success

For Immediate Release –- May 6, 2019 –  Oklahoma City, Oklahoma –  The National Reining Horse Association (NRHA) Executive Committee and Board of Directors spent two days this week at the sport’s international headquarters in Oklahoma City discussing a variety of topics, all with one goal in mind—improving and growing the sport of reining. These significant conversations concluded on Tuesday, April 30.
Accomplishments of the meeting included the following:

• Approved 2019–2020 fiscal year budget
• Approved 2019 NRHA Futurity & Adequan® North American Affiliate Championship Show schedule
• Discussed US Equestrian’s SafeSport and recommended NRHA Staff, Board, Judges Committee, and Youth Committee complete the program
• Confirmed the Run for a Million—the million-dollar invitational class is approved under Category 11 (remainder of the event’s slates were pending approval at time of meeting)
  • A motion was made to recognize the earnings in a new category (not counting toward lifetime earnings). The motion failed to achieve the two-thirds majority vote needed to reverse the Executive Committee’s original decision.
• Updated board expense-reimbursement policy
• Approved to move the NRHA Awards Banquet to the NRHA Derby starting in 2020
• Approved Calliope Sliders Reining Horse Club (Australia) as an NRHA Affiliate
• Reviewed outcomes of 2019 North American Affiliate Summit, presented by Montana Silversmiths
• Approved five-year transition of existing International Affiliate Program to encourage development of reining in emerging markets
• Endorsed new Affiliate Regional Championships request for proposals
• Approved Professionals Committee’s recommendation to institute a $20 opt-out Crisis Fund contribution with the purchase of NRHA Professionals membership
• Approved to list event approvals (calendar) online only
• Held preliminary discussion on 2020 Eligibility Policy, which is still in process with the Eligibility Committee
• Approved new disciplinary action procedures

When asked about the meeting, NRHA Past President and Current Vice President Rick Clark said, “I think it was a great meeting. We got a lot of work done and were very efficient with our time. The new bylaws and number of board members allow us to make better decisions, faster. Many of us have different views and opinions, but we all respect and appreciate each other. Operations are at a point that they are running like a well-oiled machine. During this meeting, the board made some important decisions and came up with some good ideas for some new programs.”

Each year, NRHA Members may submit rule-change proposals for addition to the following year’s official handbook. The NRHA Board of Directors discusses the proposals, sends them to NRHA Committees for feedback, reviews opinions shared by the membership, and casts votes at their annual mid-year (April or May) meeting. This week, the board considered 14 proposals and ultimately approved nine to become effective in 2020.

“I think the overall direction of NRHA is exemplified by the relatively small number of rule changes that were submitted for 2020,” said NRHA President Mike Hancock. “This shows we’re moving in the right direction. We also discussed the Run for a Million reining to be held in Las Vegas. Although there is a variety of opinions about a new event like this, I was proud of the respect for the process the Board followed. Even so, this should prove to be an exciting event and bring heightened awareness to our sport!”

Approved/Approved as Amended

• 30-01-20: Publishing information online versus in NRHA Reiner—Approved
• 41-01-20: Move Intermediate Horse from Category 5 to Category 1—Approved as amended to be a World Championship class and to rename it as Novice Horse 3
• 42-01-20: Closed Aged shows must have a minimum of three stallions subscribed—Approved
• 58-02-20: Additions to Single-Purse Structure option—Approved
• 65-01-20: Youth earnings to count for awards regardless of the number shown in the class—Approved
• 93-01-20: For riders 65 and older, remove the penalty for holding saddle horn—Approved as amended for non pro classes only (Categories 1,4,7,10) and for age to be as of January 1 of the show year. Staff and Judges Committee to work on an implementation recommendation.
• 101-01-20: Add new patterns (similar to reverse of existing)—Approved as amended for the reverse of existing Patterns 6, 8, and 12.
• 131-01-20: Edits to Pattern B—Approved
• 65-02-20: Support to allow judges’ cards to be submitted electronically—Approved

A list of voted on and approved rule changes will be available on nrha.com in the Members Only section in the near future.