SAN ANGELO — For a second year in a row, Madera professional Lyn Anderson guided Tuckers Smart Cat (WR This Cats Smart x Smoke Time Tuck) to the NRCHA Open Hackamore World Championship Feb. 1 at Spur Arena.

Anderson rode the 2007 gelding, owned by David and Barbara Archer, to a 220.5 in the rein work and 224 in the cow work. the 444.5 composite score netted $7,994, a Bob’s Custom Saddle sponsored by Carol Rose Quarter Horses, a Gist buckle sponsored by Smart Boons/Kevin & Sydney Knight, a pair of boots sponsored by Rios of Mercedes, a $50 gift certificate from Santa Cruz Biotechnologies and a bandage bag from the NRCHA.

On Wednesday, Anderson and Tuckers Smart Cat topped the Open Hackamore Preliminaries with a nearly identical score – a 443.5.

“In the prelims, he was a little more chargey in the rundowns to the stops than he was in the finals, so I was really happy in the finals that he waited on me. On the cow, both times, I thought he was awesome. This cow in the finals, I thought had a little higher degree of difficulty than the prelim cow, and he was never more than an inch away from the cow. He’s just such an athlete,” Anderson said.

Tuckers Smart Cat is out of the top-producing reined cow horse dam, Smoke Time Tuck (Doc Tom Tucker x Ima Smoke), a 1985 mare who died shortly before the Celebration of Champions. Foaled in 1985, Smoke Time Tuck always had the same owner – Bar Eleven Quarter Horses, the Eagle Point, Ore., horse operation owned by NRCHA Hall of Fame horseman Skip Brown.

As a 3-year-old, Smoke Time Tuck earned $3,555 in the show pen, but her greatest contribution to her sport has been through her babies. Anderson helped Smoke Time Tuck’s foals achieve their greatest potential; she has shown six of those offspring foals, earning approximately $350,000.

“The number of foals she has had that have been money earners is just amazing, with only breeding one time a year. there’s no embryo transfer, no nothing, and she’s still on top. I owe a lot to that mare,” Anderson said.

Smoke Time Tuck babies have similar ability and disposition, Anderson said. High-motored and physically gifted, they are all natural cow horse performers.

“They’re all hugely quick in the front end and super fence horses,” she said.

Tuckers Smart Cat will continue in training and prepare to compete as a two rein and bridle horse in the season ahead, Anderson said.

The Open Hackamore Reserve World Champion was ARC Sparkin Chics (Chic Please x Sailing Spark), shown by NRCHA Million-Dollar Rider Doug Williamson, Bakersfield, Calif., and owned by Rocking J Ranch. The 2008 stallion scored a 217.5 in the rein work and 221 in the cow work for a 438.5 and a $6,281 payday.

Dan Daponde won the Limited Open Hackamore World Championship aboard Pinchin Chics, a gelding Daponde owns in partnership with Sox & Sandals LLC. Dan Daponde claimed his first major National Reined Cow Horse Association title when he piloted Pinchin Chics (Nic It In The Bud x Smart Hippie Chic) to the Limited Open Hackamore World Championship at Spur Arena. Daponde owns the 2008 gelding in partnership with Sox & Sandals, LLC.

Working last in the set of 10 finalists, Daponde and “Rudy” scored 214.5 in the rein work and 217.5 in the cow work. The 431.5 combined score was good for a $2,603 paycheck, a Bob’s Custom Saddle sponsored by the NRCHA, a Gist buckle sponsored by Smart Boons and Kevin and Sydney Knight, a pair of boots sponsored by Rios of Mercedes and a commemorative World Finals bandage bag from the NRCHA.

Daponde had back surgery three months ago, and was under doctor’s orders to stay out of the saddle until the week before the show in San Angelo. His mentor and fellow trainer, NRCHA Hall of Fame horseman Ted Robinson, Oakdale, Calif., rode Daponde’s show horses for him while he recovered.

“I am showing four horses here, and Teddy kept them all going for me. I owe him a big round of thanks,” Daponde said. “I was literally still in the recovery room after surgery when Teddy called and said, ‘Do you need anything?'”

Daponde also credits the good-natured Pinchin Chics, nicknamed “Rudy” for his winning attitude, for helping him reach the winner’s circle.

“He’s always trying. He’s a little machine. He’s the kind you crave to ride because he’s always trying. He never holds a grudge and he’s never mad,” Daponde said. “He was quiet and good in the reining, and I had a pretty feely cow in the fence work. He got a nice turn to start it off with, and he just inhaled it. He was good.”

Daponde started riding Pinchin Chics last year when he and his customer – the oddly named Sox & Sandals LLC – purchased him from fellow trainer Jake Gorrell.

“My customer showed up one day and had denim shorts on, with low-cut black socks and Birkenstock sandals. I almost broke a rib laughing. She said ‘If you laugh like that, I’m going to make this an LLC.’ She made the Sox & Sandals LLC and bought the horse!” Daponde said, laughing.

He credits Robinson, Gorrell, Don Murphy and Russell Dilday for helping him find his way in the Western performance industry. Daponde previously showed Andalusians and Appaloosas in breed competition before he switched to reined cow horses.

The Limited Open Hackamroe Reserve World Champion was Christian Lybbert, riding Elans A Chic (Elans Playboy x Starring A Chic), a 2007 gelding owned by Christian Lybbert. The pair scored a 216 in the rein work and 215.5 in the cow work to match Daponde’s 431.5 composite score, but the tie-breaking cow work tipped the World Championship in Daponde’s favor. Lybbert won a $2,169 check, a Gist buckle sponsored by Smart Boons and Kevin and Sydney Knight, a pair of boots from Rios of Mercdes, a notebook sponsored by Classic Equine and a bandage bag from the NRCHA.

Million-Dollar Rider Jake Telford, Caldwell, Idaho, rode Nabisco Roan (Boonlight Dancer x Crackin), a 2006 stallion owned by Holy Cow Performance Horses, to the National Reined Cow Horse Association Open Two Rein World Championship with a score of 221.5 in the rein work and 223.5 in the cow work. The 445 composite garnered a $4,927 paycheck, a Bob’s Custom Saddle sponsored by the NRCHA, a Gist buckle sponsored by Smart Boons and Kevin and Sydney Knight, a pair of boots sponsored by Rios of Mercedes, a $50 gift certificate from Santa Cruz Biotechnologies and a commemorative World Finals bandage bag from the NRCHA.

It was the latest in a long string of Open Two Rein victories for Telford and the roan stallion, who captured Championships in that division at every NRCHA Premiere Event in 2012.

“It’s amazing to think back on the year. He’s had a great year,” Telford said.

He and Nabisco Roan also came close to winning an AQHA Working Cow Horse World Championship last November, but narrowly lost a tiebreaking cow work-off to another NRCHA Million-Dollar Rider, Corey Cushing, who won the title on Rising Starlight. Telford, reflecting on that run, commented that he didn’t have a tough enough cow to earn a big score – not the case in San Angelo in the Open Two Rein World Championship finals.

“This horse can handle a lot of cow, so I was glad to get the cow that I wanted. At the AQHA World Show, I didn’t get enough cow and ended up Reserve because of it. When you get a tough cow like that in the finals, you have to take advantage of it.”

There were some tense moments, Telford admitted, when the challenging bovine could have taken his score down instead of up.

“It was a really fast cow that wouldn’t head, and those are the worst kind,” he said, smiling. “I hit it a couple of times on the back fence and could tell it wouldn’t get any better. I just went on with it, and because I didn’t stay on the back fence very long, it ran hard, and I was right – it didn’t want to head. The first turn was really tight, and then coming back the other way, that cow really scared me because I was up where it should have headed, and it wasn’t heading, so I had to jump ahead of it and block it,” he said. “I was glad that he handled it. He’s become a really good bridle horse.”

Telford has been riding Nabisco Roan – nicknamed “Triscuit” – since he was 3. The stallion’s reining maneuvers have been strong throughout his career, but his cow work took more time to develop.

“He’s been a little bit of a late bloomer, but he’s definitely capable, and after this year, he’s got it figured out pretty well,” he said. “I’m definitely going to show him in the bridle some more and take him back to the AQHA World Show again.”

Telford thanked Nancy Crawford-Hall of California- and Texas-based Holy Cow Performance Horses for her support of his program and the NRCHA.

“Without the good owners like her, I wouldn’t have these great horses to ride, and it’s all about the horses,” Telford said.

The Open Two Rein Reserve World Champion was Little Pistol Peach (Playgun x Lone Star Peach), a 2006 mare shown by Keith Vogel, Pueblo, Colo., and owned by his fiancee, Lauren Porter. They scored a 218.5 in the rein work and a 221 in the cow work for a 439.5. Vogel earned $3,942, a Gist buckle sponsored by Smart Boons and Kevin and Sydney Knight, a pair of boots from Rios of Mercdes, a notebook sponsored by Classic Equine and a bandage bag from the NRCHA. The Reserve Championship comes just a day after Vogel and the mare won the Limited Open Bridle World Championship.

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