Cushing and Smart Boons (Peptoboonsmal x Smart Little Easter x Smart Little Lena), have entered three top 2012 bridle competitions, and they have won two of them — the most recent being the Aug. 18 World’s Richest Stock Horse competiton at the National Stock Horse Association Futurity. They captured the Magnificent 7 competition in Sacramento in June.
Before a loud, standing room-only Mid-State Fairgrounds crowd, Cushing outdueled perennial favorite Doug Williamson on Hes Wright On by four points with a composite score of 660 to take home the champion’s purse of $8,000. The reserve champions totaled 656 and pocketed $6,000.
“He’s my first true bridle horse on the cow horse, and he’s just taken and adapted to everything that I’ve tried to show him,” Cushing, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., said of Kevin and Sydney Knight’s talented stallion. “That’s what makes him such a great horse. He’s probably one of the best horses I ever rode as far as going through all the different phases of training and all the different things a cow horse needs to learn along the way.”
Smart Boons, who also won the 2009 NRCHA Derby Open, marked a herd score of 220, a rein score of 219 and a cow score of 221 for the World’s Richest win.
In February, Smart Boons began the year — and his bridle career — at the NRCHA World’s Greatest Horseman event. They made the finals and got some valuable experience.
“I’ve been told by some great mentors that a good bridle horse takes a long time to make,” said Cushing, who’ll show him next at the AQHA World. “Now he has a touch more experience and finesse.”
Jason Hershberger started Smart Boons, now 7, and made the Limited Open Finals at the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity before Cushing took him as a 4-year old.
“For three years, we trained him in the snaffle and the hackamore and always got two hands to help him,” said Cushing. “Now you’re just straight up with one hand, and a guy doesn’t realize how much it does help a horse until you have to go one-handed — and the horse needs to figure it out on his own. Every day he’s a little bit better, and along the way we’ve had some success.”
Russell Dilday rode Scott and Darnell Trueblood’s Pepinic Chex to third place, scoring 650.5 for $5,000, and Zane Davis was fourth on John Semanik’s Reymanator, the 2009 NRCHA Open Futurity World Champion, earning $4,000. Tied in fifth place were Shawn Hays on Labourdette Ranch’s Smart Chic Aloha and Williamson on Bill and Janie Tointon’s Shining Lil Nic, both scoring 648.5 and picking up $1,500.
2012 World’s Richest Stock Horse Competition Top 6
Aug. 18, 2012 * Midstate Fairgrounds, Paso Robles, Calif.
Place Earnings Horse Rider Score Owner
1 $8,000/ Smart Boons/ Corey D Cushing/ 660.00/ Kevin/Sydney Knight
2 $6,000/ Hes Wright On/ Doug Williamson/ 656.00/ Gardiner Quarter Horses
3 $5,000/ Pepinic Chex/ Russell Dilday/ 650.50/ Scott & Darnell Trueblood
4 $4,000/ Reymanator/ Zane P Davis/ 649.50/ John A Semanik
5 $1,500/ Smart Chic Aloha/ Shawn D Hays/ 648.50/ Labourdette Ranch
6 $1,500/ Shining Lil Nic/ Doug Williamson/ 648.50/ Bill & Janie Tointon
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