LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Trainer Nicolas Barthelemy of Ramona notched another 2014 victory in the show pen, this time at the National Reined Cow Horse Association Stakes aboard Sheri Jamieson’s 4-year-old mare, Very Red Remedy (Very Smart Remedy x Flo N Blue Boon x Pretty Boy Boon), in the Open Novice Horse Division.
Barthelemy took “Lucy” to a 646 composite score (215.5 herd/218 rein/212.5) en route to a $3,188 paycheck in a 34-entry class designed to provide horses with modest lifetime earnings –less than $5,000 — to win more limited age event money. It was Barthelemy’s second win of 2014, as he had won the inaugural Toyota Classic cow horse event Feb. 7 at Horse Expo Pomona on Jamieson’s Jans Rey Cuatro.
The Novice Horse title on Lucy was the first triumph for a promising mare that has been showed sparingly. She was purchased as a yearling at the 2011 Snaffle Bit Sale, the last sale Jamieson and Barthelemy shared with their respective trainer, mentor and friend, Yvon Mathieu. Mathieu, who had worked since 2005 with Jamieson to guide their program, passed away from ALS two weeks after the Futurity.
“I wanted to find a great horse to buy at that sale, because going to sales and finding great horses was something that Yvon and I had done together of years,” Jamieson said. “I knew this was going to be his last sale. It was important to me to find the right horse, and I wanted him to be part of that.”
Riding his bicycle, Barthelemy rode the stalls to find a prospect. He knew once he had found her.
“Somebody took her out of the stall as I was going by, and I saw the mare in the corner of my eye and almost crashed,” he recalled, cheerfully. “I turned around and said to myself, ‘I think I found something!'”
She was really straight, he said, well-balanced and with a good neck. She had a lot of eye appeal, Barthelemy thought.
“And she was very aware of her surroundings without being crazy,” he said. Jamieson liked the horse, too, as well as the bloodlines.
“It was very important to me for Yvon to see that the program was going to go on, and that it was a horse that Nick believed in,” said Jamieson. “It was just a good, good thing all around.”
Another prospective owner at the sale recognized a good thing, too.
“Unfortunately, Clinton Anderson also liked her a lot,” said Jamieson. “Clinton’s got a pretty discerning eye. Fortunately, he stopped bidding when he did because I was pretty determined to get her. There was a point at which I would have stopped bidding, but I wanted her very badly, and I wanted Yvon to see that the program would go on.”
The yearling was the sale-topper of the 2011 sale, and now Lucy appears to be coming into her own.
“It was a big win for Nick, particularly with her because we have so much faith in her,” Jamieson said. “We really, really like that mare, and we haven’t shown her much. This was only her third show.”
Barthelemy liked the result, too.
“She proved me right,” he smiled. “She is beautiful to watch, and she is really good-minded. It’s been a blast riding her from the beginning. Sometimes I have to give her some time off and let her relax. She has a lot of try and she’ll go for broke. She goes for it every time — very exciting to ride and exciting to train. You want horses like that in your barn.”
With Lucy, Jans Rey Cuatro and Jamminalena, who’ll compete in two-rein this year after finishing 2013 as the NRCHA Open Hackamore Reserve National Champion, Jamieson and Barthelemy have a strong line-up for a good season. A pair of futurity prospects have them excited, too.
“Nick’s had a great year,” Jamieson said. “He’s been bringing home buckles and trophies and checks from just about every show we’ve been to in the last year. We’re excited about it, but we’re more excited that the horses are showing their potential and evolving into what we hoped they would be.”
“I cannot say enough good things about Nick,” she added. “He is very, very committed. Not just to winning, but to training the best horse and bringing out the best potential of any of the horses.”
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