Category: Shows

As the temperatures rise and summer approaches, the excitement for the 6666 National Reining Horse Association Derby presented by Markel begins to build. Preparations have begun on all fronts and NRHA has announced the officials who will evaluate the performances at the show that will pay out more than one million dollars.

Chosen for the Jim Norick Coliseum classes are Chele McGauly, Kim Myers, Ann Anderman, Kelly Sapp and Terry Thompson, with Ed Cridge serving as equipment judge. In the Adequan® Arena, Brenda Brown, John Tuckey and Pete Kyle will officiate. The Judges Monitors will be Nick Baar and Bob Kail.

“I am proud of the roster of outstanding NRHA judges selected for this year’s NRHA Derby. These judges will arrive in Oklahoma City prepared, focused, and will score each run with the utmost professionalism,” Patti Carter, NRHA Sr. Director of Education & Officials, said.

As a former NRHA Derby judge, Carter has first-hand knowledge of how the men and women selected for this year feel. “The NRHA Derby is one of the pinnacle events of the industry. It’s an honor to have the opportunity to officiate the Derby, and a privilege to have the best seat in the house for this great reining,” she said.

The selection process for judges at each major NRHA event begins several months before the first horse ever enters the pen.  Here’s how they are chosen for the NRHA Futurity and NRHA Derby:

• Each eligible judge is contacted for their availability for the event.
• All available judges are compiled into a list and sent to each member of the Judges Committee.
• Judges Committee members make selections from the list to fill the allotted slots for the event.
• These names are compiled into a shortlist and discussed on a conference call with all members of the Judges Committee. Nominations are allowed to be made on this conference call.
• The committee members, except for the chair, then rank their choices and each ranking equates to a certain number of points. The points are compiled and submitted to the committee chair.
• The committee chair reviews and makes recommendations based on the outcome of the vote and the needs of NRHA.
• The ranked list with the Judges Committee Chair recommendations is submitted for final selection.

This process is set in place to ensure that the Derby will be a well-judged competition with the quality and professionalism of the selected judges.

For more information, visit NRHA.com/judges

The 6666 National Reining Horse Association Derby presented by Markel was recently honored by being named a Top 10 event for 2021 by the American Quarter Horse Association. The Derby ranked first amongst AQHA Alliance shows.

NRHA Events Manager Cheryl Cody said, “We are always proud to partner with the AQHA in presenting AQHA classes to NRHA members who attend the 6666 NRHA Derby presented by Markel. We feel that this opportunity to earn points at this event, and hopefully qualify for the AQHA World Championship Shows, is an important benefit for NRHA reiners. We plan to feature AQHA classes again at the 2022 6666 NRHA Derby presented by Markel.”

NRHA Commissioner Gary Carpenter added his appreciation of the Alliance Partnership between the AQHA and NRHA. He noted, “AQHA has been a great partner to NRHA, and that relationship goes all the way back to the 1960s. We are glad to continue this Alliance Partnership. It is gratifying to see the entire industry enjoy such tremendous growth.”

AQHA competitions showcase the talent and versatility of the American Quarter Horse. In 2021, AQHA members turned out in multitudes to support shows, circuits and special events across the globe, totaling more than 840,000 entries. Overall entries increased by 43 percent between 2020 and 2021 as the industry continued to recover from the effects of the pandemic. For information, visit aqha.com.

The city of Maryborough in Queensland, Australia, is the birthplace of Mary Poppins’ author Pamella Lyndon Travers. It’s fitting that the picturesque and historical town has been chosen as the location for the 2022 National Reining Horse Association Oceania Affiliate Championships, where magical moments and memories will be plentiful. The Championships will be held October 25–30.

The inaugural event, which had been slated for 2021 but was postponed due to the worldwide pandemic, was hosted by the Victorian Reining Horse Association and held at Werribee Park National Equestrian Centre in Victoria.

Despite adversity due to the pandemic and weather, the event was phenomenal. “It was a massive success,” noted Sara Honegger, NRHA Director of Marketing who oversees the Youth and Affiliate programs. “There were more than 500 entries, and the atmosphere was incredible.”

Sam Oldfield, NRHA Director of International Affairs and Development, echoed that sentiment. “The VRHA did an excellent job in not only taking on the challenge of running this event in this format for the first time but also in creating a successful and safe environment where our reining family could come and compete and also have fun,” she said. “The success of this event has given much hope and light to the future of reining in the Oceania region, and the NRHA Oceania Council is proud to announce that the 2022 NRHA Oceania Affiliate Championships will be held in Queensland by the Calliope Sliders Reining Horse Club.”

The Affiliate Championships for 2022 will be held with the NRHA Oceania Queensland State Championships hosted by the Calliope Sliders Reining Horse Club.

The CSRHC was formed in 2013 by Ed Smith of Ed Smith Reining and Performance Horses. “We are a not-for-profit club based in Calliope Queensland, inland from Gladstone,” noted Tracee Sharp, CSRHC secretary. “We are passionate about reining and are committed to the growth of reining throughout Queensland and Australia. The Sliders are a hardworking, fun-filled, family-oriented organization. We are proud to be a part of the NRHA family and hold a seat on the Oceania Council.”

The CSRHC management committee includes President Ed Smith, Vice President Paul Sharp, Secretary Tracee Sharp, and Treasurer Katrina Beale.

For more information about NRHA Oceania, follow the group on Facebook here.

Connect with the CSRHC on Facebook here or find them on the website here.

Action photos by Stephen Mowbray Photography

The 2021 6666 National Reining Horse Association Derby presented by Markel was a tremendous success by all measurements. The highest payout, plus the largest number of entries and stalls, resulted in a record-breaking mega-event.

It also created real challenges in getting so many horses shown in the allotted time. NRHA Events Manager Cheryl Cody explained, “Our entries grew amazingly. We went from 249 Non Pro entries in the previous year to 302 in 2021. The Open division increased from 247 to 274. In the four days allotted for the Open and Non Pro prelims, we had 80 more entries than in 2020. That was over a 16 percent increase with 576 horses to get shown.”

She continued, “Our officials and staff were faced with more than 150 runs per day in the Non Pro prelims and nearly 140 a day in the Open. Plus, the situation in the Adequan Arena was equally challenging, with comparable growth, so we knew we had to make changes.”

Cody and NRHA Commissioner Gary Carpenter met with the Oklahoma State Fair officials, Bill Allen, Vice President, Jim Norick Arena & Equine Facilities; Jonathan Fisher, Director of Jim Norick Arena and Equine Facilities; and incoming Oklahoma State Fair Executive Vice President Kirk Slaughter to work on the problem. Through those meetings, they were able to add two days to the Derby preliminaries and three days to the Adequan Arena classes.

Horses will now be allowed to move into the Derby at noon on Tuesday, June 14, and classes will begin on Wednesday, June 15, in the Adequan Arena with the first section of the American Quarter Horse Association and American Paint Horse Association classes. The show will continue through June 26.

The preliminaries of the Non Pro Derby will begin on Friday, June 17, and go through Sunday, June 19. The next day signals the start of three days of Open preliminaries.

Carpenter noted, “As our growth continues to amaze us in a positive sense, it also creates scheduling challenges. The State Fair staff and leadership have gone out of their way to be innovative in helping us through these record-setting shows.”

At the 2022 Winter Meetings, the National Reining Horse Association approved a proposal from the Aged Event Committee to modify the number of Semi-Finals qualifiers for the NRHA Futurity, which will be held Nov. 24–Dec. 3 at State Fair Park in Oklahoma City.

The Aged Event Committee felt that the current method of taking 75 qualifiers from each division created an imbalance in the percentage of entries advancing to the Semi-Finals. Chairman Mandy McCutcheon explained, “We did it both for the schedule, and because it was weighted so much in the Level 1.”

The 2021 NRHA Futurity numbers illustrate the disparity with 75 from each division qualifying for the Semi-Finals.

Level	Number of Entries	Number to Semis	Percentage of entries going to Semis	Score to go to Semis
4	396	75	19%	217.5
3	313	75	24%	214
2	239	75	31%	210
1	126	75	60%	200.5

It’s easy to see by looking at the chart that 60 percent of the Level 1 entries advanced to the Semi-Finals, but only 19 percent of the Level 4 qualified. After much consideration, the Committee, and subsequently the NRHA Board, agreed that setting a uniform percentage of entries in each level to come back to the Semi-Finals would make the process more evenly balanced.

The final decision was that the fairest approach would be to combine the percentage with a minimum and maximum cap on the number of qualifiers from each division. McCutcheon continued, “It was felt that this would balance the levels to bring back a more uniform percentage, with Level 1 still potentially bringing back a slightly higher percentage if it hit the minimum cap.”

The clarified condition will now read that the Semi-Finals qualifiers will be those with the top 30 percent of the first go scores in each division. However, no more than 75 entries in each division will advance. In the case where there are fewer than 50 qualifiers in the top 30 percent in a division, then 50 will advance.  

The new system will go into effect for the 2022 NRHA Futurity.

A related modification was also made for the Honorable Mention Futurity class, which will now be for open riders only. This class will be limited to the first 35 entries.

For more information regarding the 2022 NRHA Futurity and Adequan® North American Affiliate Championships, visit NRHAFuturity.com.