RENO, Nev. — In true reined cow horse fashion, the National Reined Cow Horse Association’s 2009 Snaffle Bit Futurity Open Championship came down to the cow work. As a matter of fact, it came down to the very last run in the cow work. The in-arena action at the Reno Livestock Events Center brought the crowd to the edge of its seat Oct. 4, as they saw Zane Davis of Whitehall, Mont., and Reymanator (Dual Rey x Savannah Hickory) take the Open Champions title.

Draw 25–Davis aboard Reymanator, owned by John Semanick of Jacksonville, Fla.–had topped the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity preliminaries. The two had marked the high herd work score with a 218.5, but 214 in the rein work meant that he was second going into the cow work.

“I drew up last in the herd. It wasn’t ideal, but I had three good cows picked that I really liked, and Todd Bergen came in right before me and cut all three of them!” Zane laughed, then added, “But we had three more, and two were good and one was excellent. In the reining I was almost embarrassed–it just wasn’t that good.”

But Davis and Reymanator, owned by John Semanik, came back in the cow work, thrilling the crowd with a run that earned a score of 220. “Looking back, not doing well in the reining was probably the best thing for me because it made me mad and took care of my nerves. I figured I might have blown it so I was just going to go for it in the cow work.”

Spliting the Reserve Championship were Todd Crawford and Shiners Nickle, and Boyd Rice and Picka Patcha Pepto, with identical scores of 446.5. Shiners Nickle is owned by Michelle Cannon, and Picka Patcha Pepto is owned by Larry Hall Cutting Horses.

MORE TO COME: California Horsetrader will have full coverage of the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity in the Nov. 5 issue.

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