Reining Horse Association of The Northwest

Good ground, gorgeous weather and lots of fun contributed to a very successful last show of the year for the Reining Horse Association Northwest. This is the third year that we have held this show at the beautiful Appleatchee Riders Arena in Wenatchee, Washington. Following a full day of paid warm-ups, The Spin Out began promptly at 8am on Saturday, September 14th offering a full slate of NRHA classes combined with club approved classes for the Non-NRHA members. By end of the show on Sunday, 118 horse & rider teams completed 257 reining patterns in addition to 94 paid warm-up runs. The total cash paid out to riders was $7,281 in addition to beautiful etched glasses and coffee mugs.

One of the highlights of the show was the first annual Dog Race featuring 14 entries. Each dog owner paid $5 to enter their dogs, who then lined up at the cones on the far end of the arena with the handlers. The dog’s owners were positioned at the cones at the other end of the arena. After two false starts, the official starter dropped the flag and they were off! It’s a good thing that we had three officials in place to call the winner because it was a photo finish. One of the officials was laughing too hard to make the call, but the other two officials concurred that the winner was Chloe, owned by Sheri Clevenger. Chloe earned half of the jackpotted entry fees and the other half went to the RHANW.

The feature event of the show was the NRHA Three Year Old Futurity on Saturday night, which was preceded by the always popular NRHA Freestyle. We had six entries in the Freestyle class with creative, well choreographed performances. Katherine Merck won the class on Holly Pine Dun It with a very entertaining performance to “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better”, which was performed in tandem with her trainer and coach, Eddie Biegler.

Although this is the second year that the RHANW has offered an NRHA 3 Year Old Futurity, it is the first year that we have had an NRHA Non Pro Futurity. John Harris won the Non Pro Futurity riding his beautiful buckskin mare, Busy Miss Cloie, with a solid 70 score that would have tied to win the Open Division if he had entered. The Reserve Champion was Matt Livengood riding Dealin Paychex. Andy Shafer and DS Boomin Enterprise edged out Eddie Biegler on Dun Its River Charm by 1/2 point to capture the Morrison Bronze in the Open Division.

The RHANW Awards Banquet will be on October 20th at the Deer Park Golf Club and RV Resort with a delicious dinner of New York Steak and King Crab legs. Year end winners will receive beautiful Gist Buckles, Reserve Champions will receive monogrammed jackets and other awards will be given to 4th place. We are offering people the option of coming early for a round of golf or bringing horses for a trail ride prior to the dinner. If you are interested in joining in the fun at the Banquet, contact Mary Harris at 509/276-5099.

If you would like to learn more about the RHANW and the sport of Reining, contact Joanne Pettit at 509/922-4141 or go www.rhanw.com.The results from all four of our shows and the Year End Standings are also online at www.rhanw.com.

We would like to extend a special “thank you” to our 2007 Gold Sponsors: St. John Hardware & Implement, McKinzie Quarter Horses, www.ReinersWorld.com, Twin Willows Equestrian Center; Silver Sponsors: Huber Trailer Sales; and Bronze Sponsors: Aslin Finch Feed & Pet Supply, Eddie Biegler Horse Training and Mountain Valley Quarter Horses.